All About the X Waiver

What is an X Waiver?

An “X waiver” refers to the Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA 2000) “waiver” legislation that authorized the outpatient use of buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder.  This waiver, along with the associated 8 hour (physician) or 24 hour (APP) training was previously required for any provider prescribing buprenorphine. 

What has changed? **NEW Updated January 2023**

Beginning January 12, 2023, prescriptions for buprenorphine only require a standard DEA registration number. The X waiver is no longer required for any prescriber to treat patients with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. There are also no longer any limits or patient caps on the number of patients a prescriber may treat for opioid use disorder with buprenorphine. Read the DEA letter here.

Congress also passed a mandate requiring new DEA applicants or with DEA renewal to take 8 hours of training as a one time education effective June 2023. The existing X waiver training fulfills this criteria. However, if you already completed your X waiver training, you will NOT need to complete this training in the future. Penn is hosting new trainings in February 2023.