LISTEN: Big cuts to Medicaid mean some states will have to scramble to keep offering treatment for addiction. KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” on Jan. 14 to explain why addiction care advocates worry opioid settlement money could end up plugging holes in state budgets instead of fighting the nation’s opioid crisis.
More than $50 billion in opioid settlement funds — meant to help curb the nation’s addiction crisis — is going to local and state governments. But because of lax reporting rules and little guidance on what’s appropriate, the money is generally being spent with next to no accountability.
Survivors of the overdose epidemic and families who lost loved ones to it are calling for stricter rules to govern how the payout can be used.
Senior correspondent Aneri Pattani appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” to talk about a new tool from KFF Health News, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Shatterproof that tracks opioid settlement funds.
KFF Health News audio producers Zach Dyer and Taylor Cook contributed reporting to this segment.
