Source: Health Policy Institute of Ohio
Ohio officials spent $19 million, or about 7%3, of the money Ohio received last year as part of the two-year, nearly $1 billion 21st Century Cures Act grant program, according to an analysis of states’ spending by The Associated Press (Source: “Bucking Trend, Ohio Moved Fast to use Federal Opioid Money,” The Associated Press via Akron Beacon Journal, October 21, 2018).
In Ohio, the state’s Mental Health and Addiction Services agency says the state used Cures Act dollars to fill gaps in the state’s response to the opioid crisis not covered by Medicaid eligibility expansion.
In total, $479,074,220 was allocated to 55 states and territories (including Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Palau, Northern Marianas, and American Samoa) to spend over the first year of the grant, The Associated Press review found. Ohio received $26 million for each of the two years of the grant program.
Can someone help me with this resolution to submit to OAFP Board for upcoming meeting please?
Methadone prescribing for chronic SUD treatment in the physician office setting:
Physicians already are licensed to prescribe methadone for pain.
Methadone treatment for addiction is presently only available in the methadone clinic setting (non-profit and for-profit clinics) concentrated in urban areas
Critical to the therapeutic regimen success is a continuous established patient-physician relationship
Many physicians today are taking care of patients or a patient’s family member who suffer from Substance Use Disorder (SUD) for other medical conditions
There are not enough methadone clinics (non-profit and for-profit) available in the state of Ohio to facilitate easy access to treatment for this chronic disease
There were a few deaths in the 1990’s from methadone treatment by pain management clinics which should not be a deterrent to expansion of an effective treatment for this lifelong chronic disease by their personal physician
Family Medicine physicians are uniquely trained for chronic disease management and brief treatment therapies (Diabetes Mellitus for example) to care for and coordinate the care of many diseases.
Family Medicine physicians have a track record for utilizing subspecialty physicians for many different medical conditions already
If we want to more effectively address the treatment success for the chronic disease of SUD we need more physicians, stronger patient-physician relationships and easier access to treatment than exists today
An additional incremental step is to allow licensed Family Medicine physicians in Ohio to prescribe methadone from their office for the chronic disease of SUD
So we the OAFP BOT request a waiver to prescribe Methadone for SUD from Ohio state pharmacy and medical boards to help reduce the deaths and over doses for patients from the chronic disease of SUD