As the Senate gets ready to vote on opioid legislation, advocates urge people to contact their members of Congress to call for comprehensive coverage by Medicare for treatment for opioid use disorders. A demonstration project is not needed – we know treatment works. Seniors need it too. The House of Representatives, in H.R. 6, passed a bill calling for full coverage for Opioid … [Read more...] about Opioid Bills in Congress: Focus on Medicare and OTPs – Updated August 25, 2018
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42 CFR Part 2 Faces Tough Going in Congress
When the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6082 last June methadone patients worried that they would lose their confidentiality. The bill would remove a major portion of the protections of 42 CFR Part 2, the regulation requiring most substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers to obtain patient consent before releasing their records, by allowing disclosures without … [Read more...] about 42 CFR Part 2 Faces Tough Going in Congress
How New York Uses Its STR Funds to Enhance Treatment
To use its more than $50 million in funding from the State Targeted Response (STR) to the Opioid Crisis, New York State first identified its highest need counties, then added access to treatment for opioid use disorders, mainly with medications. “The major thing we did on the treatment side was creating Centers of Treatment Innovation, or COTI,” Robert A. Kent, chief counsel … [Read more...] about How New York Uses Its STR Funds to Enhance Treatment
As the NAS Crisis Worsens, a New Study Offers Treatment Guidelines
The incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) has been climbing steadily, according to a 2016 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report, published August 12, indicated that the number of NAS cases rose from 1.5 per 1,000 hospital births in 1999 to 6 per 1,000 in 2013. Yet guidelines for treating NAS have … [Read more...] about As the NAS Crisis Worsens, a New Study Offers Treatment Guidelines
Research Report: In Appalachia, Pregnant Women With OUD Encounter Barriers to Treatment
Appalachia is an area long known for beautiful scenery, coal mining, and devastating poverty. And now the area around central Appalachia has become the epicenter of the opioid epidemic. Four Appalachian states—Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia—have been especially hard-hit in the epidemic. A team from Vanderbilt University in Nashville launched a study to … [Read more...] about Research Report: In Appalachia, Pregnant Women With OUD Encounter Barriers to Treatment