As '142 Americans dying every day', Opioid Commission seeks national emergency declaration

The Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis has asked President Trump to declare a national public health emergency to combat the opioid epidemic.

"With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to Sept. 11 every three weeks," the interim report from the committee said.

"Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life."

The commission outlined its work so far, including speaking with governors across the nation and dozens of treatment providers, addiction psychiatrists, physicians and national organizations leading the fight against the epidemic.

"Our nation is in a crisis," the report said. "Our citizens are dying. We must act boldly to stop it."

In 2015, the report said 27 million people reported current use of illegal drugs or abuse of prescription drugs. Only 10 percent of the nearly 21 million citizens with a substance use disorder (SUD) receive any type of specialty treatment, according to the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

In the years since, states like Ohio, Kentucky and Georgia have faced a drastic uptick in opioid-related deaths and overdoses, forcing even rural cities and towns to quickly face the reality of the growing epidemic.

In addition to declaring a national emergency in its draft released last week, the commission also recommends the following:

Rapidly increase treatment capacity by granting waiver approvals for all 50 states to quickly eliminate barriers to treatment resulting from the federal Institutes for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion within the Medicaid program.

Mandate prescriber education initiatives with the assistance of medical and dental schools across the country to enhance prevention efforts.

Immediately establish and fund a federal incentive to enhance access to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT). Require that all modes of MAT are offered at every licensed MAT facility and that those decisions are based on what is best for the patient.

Provide model legislation for states to allow naloxone dispensing via standing orders, as well as requiring the prescribing of naloxone with high-risk opioid prescriptions. Law enforcement should also be equipped with naloxone.

Prioritize funding and manpower to the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the DEA to quickly develop fentanyl detection sensors and disseminate them to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies. Legislation must also be supported to stop the flow of synthetic opioids through the U.S. Postal Service.

Provide federal funding and technical support to states to enhance interstate data sharing among state-based prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to better track patient-specific prescription data and support regional law enforcement in cases of controlled substance diversion.

Better align, through regulation, patient privacy laws specific to addiction with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure that information about SUDs be made available to medical professionals treating and prescribing medication to a patient.

Enforce the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equality Act (MHPAEA) with a standardized parity compliance tool to ensure health plans cannot impose less favorable benefits for mental health and substance use diagnoses versus physical health diagnoses.

Additional recommendations are expected in the full report in the fall.

Wendy Holdren writes for the Beckley, West Virginia Register-Herald.