Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Cutting Medicaid Funding In Midst Of Opioid Crisis Would Be 'Catastrophic,' Advocates Warn
Los Angeles Times: Tens Of Thousands Died Due To An Opioid Addiction Last Year. With An Obamacare Repeal, Some Fear The Number Will Rise
There weren’t always strollers jamming the lobby of First Step Home, one of this city’s growing number of drug treatment centers. But as the opioid epidemic has swept through Ohio, mothers with babies and small children have flocked to an aging block of brick homes just outside downtown Cincinnati. “It’s been breathtaking,” said Margo Spence, president of First Step Home, which nearly tripled the number of mothers it treats since 2013. (Levey, 6/21)
Reuters: Missouri Sues Opioid Manufacturers, Joining Two Other U.S. States
Missouri on Wednesday became the third U.S. state to accuse major drug manufacturers of fraudulently misrepresenting the risks of opioid painkillers now at the center of a national addiction epidemic. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said his office filed a lawsuit in a state court in St. Louis against Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson and units of Endo International Plc. (Raymond, 6/21)
The Wall Street Journal: Missouri Files Its Own Suit Against Opioid-Painkiller Producers
The lawsuit, filed in state court by Attorney General Joshua Hawley, targets various parent companies and subsidiaries, including Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Endo International PLC. The lawsuit alleges the companies “created a sprawling campaign of misinformation and deception to convince doctors and consumers that opioids pose little risk of addiction, and that such risks can be easily identified and mitigated.” (Whalen, 6/21)
Bloomberg: Opioids Given To Almost 1 In 4 Medicaid Patients, Study Finds
Nearly one in four people on Medicaid, the U.S. health program for the poor, received powerful and addictive opioid pain medicines in 2015, according to research by a drug-benefits management firm. The analysis by Express Scripts Holding Co., one of the largest managers of Medicaid plans’ drug benefits for the past two decades, found that about 6 percent of all prescriptions in the program were for the pain pills. The report shows the extent to which the controversial class of narcotic pain medicines has penetrated the U.S.’s health-care safety net. (Cortez, 6/21)
Columbus Dispatch: Opioid Battle In Franklin County To Focus On Treatment, Education
The 40-page “Franklin County Opiate Action Plan,” they rolled out Wednesday afternoon is the result of three months of research. Along with treatment and education, the multi-year proposal calls for a change in community perception to stress that heroin is killing family and friends of all colors and creeds while costing millions upon millions of dollars. (Perry, 6/21)
