Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
At Front Lines Of Opioid Battle, Police Embrace Role Of Ally Over Enemy
The New York Times: When Opioid Addicts Find An Ally In Blue
In this college town on the banks of Lake Champlain, Chief Brandon del Pozo has hired a plain-spoken social worker to oversee opioids policy and has begun mapping heroin deaths the way his former commanders in the New York Police Department track crime. In New York City, detectives are investigating overdoses with the rigor of homicides even if murder charges are a long shot. They are plying the mobile phones of the dead for clues about suppliers and using telltale marks on heroin packages and pills to trace them back to dealers. And like their colleagues in Philadelphia and Ohio, they are racing to issue warnings about deadly strains of drugs when bodies fall, the way epidemiologists take on Zika. (Baker, 6/12)
The Washington Post: Drug Crisis Is Pushing Up Death Rates For Almost All Groups Of Americans
The opioid epidemic that has ravaged life expectancy among economically stressed white Americans is taking a rising toll among blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, driving up the overall rate of death among Americans in the prime of their lives. Since the beginning of this decade, death rates have risen among people between the ages of 25 and 44 in virtually every racial and ethnic group and almost all states, according to a Washington Post analysis. The death rate among African Americans is up 4 percent, Hispanics 7 percent, whites 12 percent and Native Americans 18 percent. The rate for Asian Americans also has increased, but at a level that is not statistically significant. (Achenbach and Keating, 6/9)
And in the states —
Denver Post: Colorado Hospitals Launch Program To Reduce Opioid Addiction
Now, [Dr. Don] Stader is part of a group of doctors and administrators who have come up with an ambitious plan for Colorado hospitals to dramatically reduce the amount of opioids they prescribe while still treating pain effectively. The program will roll out this year in a six-month pilot program at eight hospitals and three freestanding emergency rooms. Health officials hope to analyze data from the program at the three-month mark to figure out what is working best and what’s not, said Diane Rossi MacKay, with the Colorado Hospital Association. The effort is part of a broad rethinking in the medical world about the place opioids, blamed for an epidemic of addiction and overdose, should hold in medicine. As Stader says, doctors for years treated opioids as a panacea. (Ingold, 6/12)
Nashville Tennessean: 'Cash Money Talks' When It Comes To Finding A Drug Treatment Bed In Tennessee
The wait time for inpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment often depends on money or insurance. Not everyone with a mental health or substance use disorder need inpatient treatment. For some, outpatient services will suffice. But for those who do need inpatient treatment, "cash money talks," said Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of UT Health Science Center's Center for Addiction Science in Memphis. Demand for inpatient treatment outweighs what's available because the state is in the throes of an opioid abuse and misuse epidemic. The number of overdose deaths hit a record 1,451 in 2015. (Fletcher, 6/10)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: More Hospitalized In Middle Georgia With Suspected Overdoses
At least three more people have been admitted to Middle Georgia hospitals because of possible overdoses linked to a wave of potent synthetic opioids being sold on the street and marked as Percocet, health officials said Friday. The new cases bring to 33 the number of people affected in Middle and South Georgia since last weekend. (Cook, 6/9)
St. Louis Public Radio: Public Health Experts: Missouri Needs To Better Track, Treat Opioid Addiction
Public health experts on a panel in St. Louis Friday admonished Missouri lawmakers for failing to pass a prescription drug monitoring bill during the last legislative session... At least 712 people died after opioid overdoses in the bi-state St. Louis region last year — nearly 200 more than the year before, according to the anti-addiction group NCADA St. Louis. (Bouscaren, 6/9)
Kaiser Health News: Medical Responses To Opioid Addiction Vary By State, Analysis Finds
Location, location, location. That mantra may apply even when it comes to how opioid addiction is treated. Specifically, patients with private insurance who are diagnosed with opioid dependency or abuse may get different medical services depending on where they live, a white paper to be released in the upcoming week by a national databank indicates. (Appleby, 6/12)
