TRICARE; removal of the prohibition to use addictive drugs in the maintenance treatment of substance dependence in TRICARE beneficiaries. Final rule.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is publishing this final rule to remove the exclusion of drug maintenance programs and allow TRICARE coverage of the substitution of a therapeutic drug, with addictive potential, for a drug of addiction when medically necessary and appropriate as part of a comprehensive treatment plan for an individual with substance use dependence. The current regulation prohibits coverage of drug maintenance programs where one addictive substance is substituted for another. The final rule allows TRICARE to cover, as part of otherwise authorized treatment of substance use disorder, utilization of a specific category of psychoactive agent when medically necessary and appropriate. Removal of the exclusion is based on recognition of the accumulated medical evidence supporting the use of certain pharmacotherapies as one component in the continuum of opioid treatment services. Medication assisted treatment, to include drug maintenance involving substitution of a therapeutic drug with addiction potential, for a drug of addiction, is now generally accepted by qualified professionals to be reasonable and adequate as a component in the safe and effective treatment of substance use disorders treatment services, and thus appropriate for inclusion as a component in the TRICARE authorized substance use disorder treatment for beneficiaries.