D.C. Update – May 9, 2016

News from the States

Ohio Governor John Kasich signs executive order banning synthetic opioid U-47700

Around the Agencies

CDC study finds 20 percent of Medicaid enrolled women of reproductive age in New York received an opioid prescription from 2008 to 2013
HHS announces $260 million in funding to increase patient capacity and preventive health services in 45 States
FDA announces new regulations for e-cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products

In the News

ATTC seeks participants for pilot online MAT course
House Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) discusses need for Congress to act on opioids
CHCS launches Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Resource Center

Upcoming Events

Addiction Policy Forum announces Family Day to encourage passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016
NDEWS announces webinar on national poison data system and drug-related human exposure cases

News from the States

Ohio Governor John Kasich signs executive order banning synthetic opioid U-47700
Ohio Governor John Kasich has signed an executive order making the synthetic opioid U-47700 a Schedule I controlled substance. The executive order identifies U-47700 as 7.5 times more potent than morphine, with high potential for misuse. Governor Kasich signed the order in response to a growing number of overdose deaths attributable to the substance.

Read more about the executive order here.

Around the Agencies

CDC study finds 20 percent of Medicaid-enrolled women of reproductive age in New York received an opioid prescription from 2008 to 2013
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study last week finding that 20 percent of reproductive-aged women enrolled in Medicaid in New York received an opioid prescription at least once from 2008 to 2013. Almost 40 percent of reproductive-aged Medicaid enrolled women in the United States received an opioid prescription during this same time, placing New York below the national average. The CDC attributes New York’s lower prescribing rates to its long history of prescription monitoring programs beginning in 1972. New York’s prescription monitoring was enhanced in 2012 via the I-STOP program, which increased the number of substances monitored by the program. Prescriptions were “lowest during the prenatal period for women who had a live birth (9.5%), intermediate for women with no indication of contraceptive use or infertility (17%), and highest for women with an indication of contraceptive use or infertility (27%).” The CDC cautions that these results only contain Medicaid enrolled women, and do not include women who obtained opioid prescriptions without Medicaid.

Read the full study here.

HHS announces $260 million in funding to increase patient capacity and preventive health services in 45 States
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced $260 million in funding to 290 health centers in 45 States. The funding will be used to renovate and expand existing health centers in order to increase patient capacity and increase the number of comprehensive primary and preventive health services available to underserved populations. The Affordable Care Act’s Community Health Center (CHC) Fund is providing the funding following the program’s extension in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. HHS previously distributed CHC funds in September 2015 to 160 health centers for the same purpose.

Read the full press release here.

View a map of FQHCs throughout the country here.

FDA announces new regulations for e-cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced new regulations for e-cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products. The FDA’s previous authority only monitored cigarettes and smokeless tobacco; the new final rule extends this authority to electronic nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes and vape pens, cigars, hookah tobacco, pipe tobacco, and nicotine gels. The rule further stipulates that the FDA will be able to review new tobacco products not yet on the market and evaluate the manufacturing process of tobacco process in the future. Manufacturers will now have to register and provide product listings and ingredients that are subject to premarket review and authorization by the FDA. The final rule restricts youth access to tobacco by preventing sales to individuals under the age of 18 both in-person and online and prohibiting the distribution of free samples.

Read more about the new regulation here.

In the News

ATTC seeks participants for pilot online MAT course
The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network is currently seeking participants for a pilot online course on medication-assisted treatment (MAT). The course, titled “Supporting Recovery with Medication-Assisted Treatment,” is a self-paced 3 hour course intended to increase participants’ familiarity with various types of MAT. Topics will include ways to use MAT for alcohol and opioid use disorder treatment, the different types of medications available for treating alcohol and opioid use disorders, workforce and regulatory issues impeding the implementation of MAT, and methods for improving MAT awareness at the community level. Upon the pilot course’s conclusion, participants will be asked to provide feedback to improve the program before its release. The pilot course will be available between May 3^rd and May 31^st.

House Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) discusses need for Congress to act on opioids
The House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) discussed the need for Congress to act on opioids during the American Hospital Association’s annual membership meeting last week. Rep. Hoyer enumerated several “innovative solutions” for addressing the ongoing epidemic, and asserted his hope that the necessary changes will be made in the future. Rep. Hoyer stated that, “while health care providers bear some of the responsibility of overprescribing opioids that are easily abused, I recognize a careful balance must be struck when caring for patients suffering from severe pain. This is why policymakers need to ensure that we are giving doctors and hospitals the tools needed to identify patients at the risk of abuse.”

Read the full story here from AHA News.

CHCS launches Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Resource Center
The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) announced the launch of their Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Resource Center last week. The online resource center will provide a collection of resources for States interested in or already developing a Medicaid ACO program. These resources include a resource compendium with tools on ACO topics including general design, scope of services, provider management, quality measures, payment, and federal guidance, as well as an interactive map providing updates of Medicaid ACO activities by State and a news section with the latest updates on ACOs for the Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial populations.

Access the resource center here.

Upcoming Events

Addiction Policy Forum announces Family Day to encourage passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016
The Addiction Policy Forum has announced a Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) Family Day on May 18^th-19^th. The Forum encourage families who have been impacted by addiction to meet with members of Congress and encourage them to pass legislation that will comprehensively address the opioid epidemic, including CARA (S. 524; H.R. 953).