Preventing Overdoses and Saving Lives Act of 2021
Official title: To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to eligible entities to develop strategic response plans with respect to the opioid crisis, and to r… Show full official titleShow less
Official title: To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to eligible entities to develop strategic response plans with respect to the opioid crisis, and to require health care practitioners prescribing an opioid for certain patients to also prescribe an opioid overdose reversal drug, and for other purposes.
Have a question about what this bill does? Ask in plain English; the answer is drawn from the bill's actual text and official record, and it'll tell you when something isn't in the text rather than guess.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Preventing Overdoses and Saving Lives Act of 2021
This bill establishes a grant program for states, Indian tribes, and territories to respond to the opioid crisis. In awarding the grants, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must give priority to recipients with the highest opioid dispensing rates.
Recipients must use at least 20% of grant funds to implement a program that requires a prescription for an opioid overdose reversal drug along with an opioid prescription if (1) a patient is prescribed benzodiazepines, medication-assisted treatment, or high-dose opioids; or (2) the prescriber has reason to know of the patient's history with substance use disorders. As part of this program, recipients must also require continuing education on opioid-prescribing practices for prescribers and on recognizing opioid overdose fatalities for coroners.
Recipients must use the remaining funds to develop a strategic plan for the jurisdiction's response to the opioid crisis.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 5224: Preventing Overdoses and Saving Lives Act of 2021. 117th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/117-HR-5224/
"H.R. 5224: Preventing Overdoses and Saving Lives Act of 2021." 117th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/117-HR-5224/.
H.R. 5224, 117th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/117-HR-5224/.
[H.R. 5224: Preventing Overdoses and Saving Lives Act of 2021](https://openamerica.io/bill/117-HR-5224/)