Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'We Didn’t Want To Sugarcoat It': Obituaries Are Telling The Story Of Opioid Crisis
USA Today: Obituaries Reveal Damage Caused By Opioid Addiction
Mary and Joe Mullin had no doubt they would put the circumstances of their son’s death in his obituary. The only question was what words they would use.“We wanted it truthful,” Joe Mullin said.“Mullin, Patrick Joseph, Irondequoit: Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at the age of 32 after a long battle with addiction.” (Singer, 8/24)
Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee's Deaths From Opioids, Heroin Undercounted Amid Opioid Crisis
In 2015, state officials reported at least 1,451 men, women and children died from drug overdoses in Tennessee - but that's far from an accurate count. There are likely hundreds more. No one knows the true number. Drug deaths reported in Tennessee are fundamentally flawed and represent an under-count of the toll taken by opioids, the nation’s most deadly drug epidemic, a USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee investigation found. (Wadhwani, 8/25)
In other news —
The New York Times: Trump Said The Opioid Crisis Is A National Emergency, But He Never Filed The Paperwork
Two weeks ago, in response to a reporter’s question, President Trump proclaimed that he considered the opioid crisis to be “a national emergency,” leading many news organizations to report that a national emergency had been declared. But the Trump administration, perhaps caught off guard by the president’s statement, has not yet taken the legal steps to give those words force. (Katz, 8/24)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Outside Panel Reviewing Opioid Prescribing Practices Of Psychiatrist At Zablocki VA
A panel of outside experts has already begun its review of the opioid prescribing practices of a physician at the Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. ... Investigators said they "substantiated that a provider prescribed opioid medications for some patients in a manner that varied from clinical guidelines and other providers at the facility." (Glauber, 8/24)
