CDC adds another $28.6 million to states' opioid war chest

by: Roy Edroso Sep 6, 2017

The rest of the federal government may be dragging its feet, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is doing its bit against opioid addiction with a $28.6 million grant to help states fight back..

CDC announced the additional funding to 44 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday. The funds are to be used to "strengthen prevention efforts and better track opioid-related overdoses," per their announcement.

CDC had pitched $12 million to the states for these purposes in July.

Among the specific interventions CDC mentioned the grant would fund:

"increasing the use of prescription drug monitoring programs and improving clinical feedback from these systems;"
"expanding the reach of messages about the risks associated with opioids;"
"other practices such as conducting overdose fatality reviews to improve prevention efforts" and
"directly support[ing] medical examiners and coroners, including funds for comprehensive toxicology testing and for enhancing their surveillance activities."

President Trump said he would declare opioid addiction a national emergency on August 8, which would theoretically allow states to access federal disaster relief funds and waive certain administrative rules, but he has not yet formally made that declaration. Trump's budget includes a 14-fold boost in the HHS opioid budget to $816 million, but the Senate budget committee today rejected that budget.

States have been busy changing the rules for providers who prescribe and dispense opioids, however, and Part B News subscribers can read about ways to tweak practice policy to cope with them in our latest issue.

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