Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
House Easily Passes Sweeping Opioid Package, Sending It To Senate
CQ HealthBeat: House Passes Opioid Agreement
The House passed consensus legislation, 393-8, on Friday that is intended to help combat the opioid crisis. The legislative compromise was finalized earlier this week, and now heads to the Senate for a final vote. The two chambers came to an agreement on Tuesday, but made additional changes to the bill (HR 6) after the Congressional Budget Office initially estimated that the bill would increase the deficit by $44 million over the next 10 years. (Raman, 9/28)
The Hill: House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill To Fight Opioid Crisis
The legislation includes a range of measures aimed at fighting the deadly opioid crisis, which killed more than 42,000 people in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill lifts some limits on Medicaid paying for care at addiction treatment facilities, addressing restrictions that lawmakers called outdated. It cracks down on illicit opioids being imported by mail and fueling the crisis across the United States. (Sullivan, 9/28)
In other news on the epidemic —
The Washington Post: Pain Treatment Complicated By Doctors' Opioid Fears
I felt a shake and opened my eyes. The clock read 1:30 a.m. “We need to go to the hospital,” my mother whispered in my ear, clutching her stomach. She knew; it was the same pain she had experienced many times before. (DeFilippis, 9/29)
The Star Tribune: Needle-Related Infections Soar In Minnesota As Opioid Epidemic Lingers
Costly and dangerous heroin-related infections have risen sharply in Minnesota since 2010, a frightening but little-noticed byproduct of the state’s opioid epidemic that is presenting local hospitals with patients who need lengthy and expensive treatment. Since 2010, for example, admissions at Minnesota hospitals for heart valve infections among drug users have more than quadrupled, from 18 to at least 81. While the full impact on Minnesota’s health care system stemming from injecting opioids is unclear, doctors report a growing number of grave infection cases — patients who require up to six weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy. (Howatt, 9/30)
Kaiser Health News: Judges In California Losing Sway Over Court-Ordered Drug Treatment
Dressed in jailhouse orange, with hands and feet shackled, Jimi Ray Haynes stood up in a Santa Cruz County courtroom and pleaded guilty to a felony weapons charge. Haynes, then 32, had spent the previous two weeks in jail detoxing from methamphetamine and heroin. The judge told Haynes he could serve part of his yearlong jail sentence in a drug treatment program rather than locked in county jail. (Rinker, 10/1)
