Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Profit Mining The Opioid Epidemic: These Middlemen Are Turning 'Patients Into Paychecks'
Stat: Addict Brokers Profit As Desperate Patients Are 'Treated Like Paychecks'
Patient brokers can earn up to tens of thousands of dollars a year by wooing vulnerable addicts for treatment centers that often provide few services and sometimes are run by disreputable operators with no training or expertise in drug treatment, according to Florida law enforcement officials and two individuals who worked as brokers in Massachusetts...The facilities are tapping into a flood of dollars made available to combat the opioid epidemic and exploiting a shortage of treatment beds in many states. As center owners and brokers profit, many patients get substandard treatment and relapse. (Armstrong and Allen, 5/28)
Stat: Your Mind Can Be Trained To Control Chronic Pain. But It Will Cost You
[Carl] White enrolled in a pain management clinic that taught him some of his physical torment was in his head — and he could train his brain to control it. It’s a philosophy that dates back decades, to the 1970s or even earlier. It fell out of vogue when new generations of potent pain pills came on the market; they were cheaper, worked faster, felt more modern. But the opioid epidemic has soured many patients and doctors on the quick fix. And interest is again surging in a treatment method called biopsychosocial pain management, which trains patients to manage chronic pain with tools ranging from physical therapy to biofeedback to meditation. It helped Carl White, a 43-year-old social worker from Leroy, Minn. (Keshavan, 5/30)
In other news on the crisis —
The Associated Press: In Opioid Crisis, A New Risk For Police: Accidental Overdose
As Cpl. Kevin Phillips pulled up to investigate a suspected opioid overdose, paramedics were already at the Maryland home giving a man a life-saving dose of the overdose reversal drug Narcan. Drugs were easy to find: a package of heroin on the railing leading to a basement; another batch on a shelf above a nightstand. The deputy already had put on gloves and grabbed evidence baggies, his usual routine for canvassing a house. He swept the first package from the railing into a bag and sealed it; then a torn Crayola crayon box went from the nightstand into a bag of its own. Inside that basement nightstand: even more bags, but nothing that looked like drugs. (Linderman, 5/27)
NPR: Montana Lacks Addiction Resources, Grassroots Efforts Step In
There's a narrative about the methamphetamine epidemic in Montana that says the state tackled it in the 2000s, yet now it's back with a vengeance because of super labs and drug cartels in Mexico. But here on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, it never really went away. "Getting high in your car in front of the store; that ain't a big deal," says Miranda Kirk. (Saks, 5/27)
Modern Healthcare: Direct Relief And Pfizer Donate 1 Million Doses Of Naloxone To Health Providers
A leading humanitarian organization known for providing medical aid to impoverished countries and disaster zones is now setting its sights on helping U.S. healthcare providers combat the opioid epidemic. California-based charitable medicine program Direct Relief has partnered with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to donate up to 1 million doses of the drug overdose-reversal drug naloxone to free health clinics, community health centers, public health departments and other not-for-profit providers nationwide. Direct Relief began delivering the donated naloxone in March 2017 after a survey from the group revealed it was difficult for many providers to keep the drug in stock. (Johnson, 5/26)
The Star Tribune: Minnesota Opioid Deaths Climbing Despite Attention, Intervention
Deaths from opioid overdoses increased again in Minnesota last year, despite heightened law enforcement and a massive decline in doctors prescribing opioid painkillers. A Star Tribune analysis of state death certificate data found 402 opioid-related deaths in 2016, up from 344 in 2015. (Olson, 5/28)
Cincinnati Enquirer: Lethal Fentanyl Now Reaches Recreational Cocaine Users In Opioid Scourge
The scourge of opioid deaths has made its way to recreational cocaine users. That's because the highly toxic fentanyl, the synthetic opiate, and its analogs, are seeping into cocaine in the Cincinnati area and beyond. Just grains of fentanyl can kill. So far, incidents of the cocaine-fentanyl combination appear to be relatively spotty. (DeMio, 5/27)
