
Part II: NP/PA 16-Hour Waiver Training
Recorded On: 12/10/2015
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The 16-hour product developed includes all additional education required by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) for nurse practitioners to successfully apply for a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for office-based treatment of opioid use disorders.
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Tricia Wright
MD, MS, FACOG, FASAM
Tricia Wright, MD MS is an assistant professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine and founder, former medical director, and now Women's Health Liaison of the PATH Clinic, an outreach clinic of Waikiki Health Center, which provides prenatal, postpartum and family planning to women with a history of substance use disorders. She is board certified in both Ob/Gyn and Addiction Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has been waivered to provide buprenorphine since 2009, and has treated both pregnant and non-pregnant women. She won funding approval in 2006 from the Hawaii legislature to start a perinatal clinic for women with substance use, the first in the state. The Path Clinic opened in 2007, and has seen over 400 pregnant women since that time. She completed her Masters Degree in Clinical Research from the University of Hawaii in 2009, her thesis paper studying the disparities of smoking and drug use rates during pregnancy of Native Hawaiian women. Her research interests include substance use disorders among pregnant women, including barriers to family planning, screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT), best practices for treatment, and the effects of methamphetamine, marijuana and tobacco on the placenta.

Timothy K. Brennan
MD, MPH, FASAM
Timothy Brennan, MD, MPH, FASAM is an Addiction Medicine physician and Pediatrician. He is the Director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai West and St. Luke's Hospitals in New York City and the Vice President for Medical and Academic Affairs at The Addiction Medicine Foundation. He is also the Director of the Fellowship in Addiction Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He completed a Fellowship in Addiction Medicine at the Addiction Institute of New York, a Fellowship in Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, a Residency in Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College / New York Presbyterian Hospital, and an Internship in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital. He is the Co-Editor of Essentials of Addiction Medicine and Board Certified in Addiction Medicine and Pediatrics.

Brian Hurley
MD, MBA, DFASAM
Brian Hurley, MD, MBA, DFASAM is an addiction physician and the Director of Addiction Medicine for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Brian is currently a Director at Large for the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and will assume the position of President-Elect this April 2021. He co-chairs the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services’ Substance Use Disorders Workgroup and the SafeMedLA Medications for Addiction Treatment Action Team, and is the Clinical Director of the Addiction Treatment Starts Here programs through the Center for Care Innovations, focused on increasing the delivery of Medications for Addiction Treatment in California’s community health centers. He is the PI of two MAT Access Points projects funded by the Sierra Health Foundation, a co-PI of a TRDRP funded smoking cessation implementation project, and a co-investigator on NIDA, NIAAA, and PCORI funded addiction related implementation science grants managed through RAND. He is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and regularly conducts motivational interviewing trainings throughout the United States. He is a Volunteer Assistant Clinical Professor of Addiction Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. He additionally serves on the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology’s Addiction Psychiatry examination writing committee.
Brian completed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and was previously a UCLA - Veterans Administration National Quality Scholar at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. He completed a fellowship program in addiction psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. He completed residency training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, where he was Chief Resident in Addiction Psychiatry. Brian is a former National President of the American Medical Student Association.
No relevant financial disclosures
The collaborative of ASAM, AANP and AAPA identified and reviewed this content to provide the NP/PA training required by CARA.
The NP/PA 24-Hour Waiver Training is available for free through 2017 in part by an unrestricted educational grant from Indivior.
The 16-hour product developed includes all additional education required by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) for nurse practitioners to successfully apply for a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for office-based treatment of opioid use disorders.
Download this helpful FAQ for technical issues.
All other questions, contact ASAM Education.
education@ASAM.org | 301.656.3920
Upon successful completion of all 16 hours, return to the AANP CE Center to submit an evaluation and claim credit.
Please ensure that your state regulations allow you to prescribe buprenorphine and other medications to treat OUD before you apply for the waiver. Some states may have overriding state legislation that will prevent NPs and PAs from prescribing these medications even if Federal law allows it.
Apply
- Fill out the Waiver Notification Form on SAMHSA’s website.
- Submit copies of your training certificate(s) to SAMHSA by email: infobuprenorphine@samhsa.hhs.gov or fax: 301.576.5237.
SAMHSA reviews waiver applications within 45 business days of receipt. If approved, you will receive a letter via email that confirms your waiver and includes your prescribing identification number.
Waiver applications are forwarded to the DEA. DEA regulations require your prescribing identification number to be included on all buprenorphine prescriptions for opioid dependency treatment, along with your regular DEA number.
If you have not received confirmation of receipt of your application, or if it has been more than 45 business days since submitting it, contact CSAT by email: infobuprenorphine@samhsa.hhs.gov or call 866.287.2728.
Qualify
To qualify for a waiver to treat patients with Opioid Use Disorder, NPs and PAs must:
- Be licensed under state law to prescribe schedule III, IV, or V medications for pain
- Complete no less than 24 hours of appropriate education through a qualified provider or through other training or experience, demonstrate the ability to treat and manage OUD
- If required by state law, supervision or working in collaboration with a qualifying physician (physician must be waivered) to prescribe medications for the treatment of OUD may be required.
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