Rural Health Clinics Still Have the Opportunity to Apply

October 16, 2023

Rural Health Clinics Still Have the Opportunity to Apply

As announced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in January 2023, clinicians no longer need a federal waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder. Clinicians will still be required to register with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to prescribe controlled medications. On June 27, the DEA began to require that registration applicants – both new and renewing – affirm they have completed a new, one-time, eight-hour training. Exceptions for the new training requi8rement are practitioners who are board certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry, and those who graduated from a medical, dental, physician assistant, or advanced practice nursing school in the U.S. within five years of June 27, 2023.

Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) still have the opportunity to apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of EACH provider who trained between January 1, 2019 and December 29, 2022 (when Congress eliminated the waiver requirement). Approximately $889,000 in program funding remains available for RHCs and will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until the funds are exhausted.

How to Apply

RHCs will need a System for Award Management (SAM) account in order to apply
- For information on how to create a SAM account, visit gov
- For help on setting up a SAM account, you can watch this helpful video
RHCs will also need a HRSA Electronic Handbooks (EHBs) account in order to apply
- To create a EHBs account, visit the EHBs Registration page.
- For help on setting up a EHBs account, you can watch this helpful video on the Getting Started in the EHBs help page
Apply through HRSA EHBs
- Visit the EHBs login, and click the Organizations tab from the Menu bar
- For more information on creating and checking the status of your application, visit the DATA 2000 Waiver Training Payment Program Help page