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Feds to provide $485M in grants to combat opioid epidemic

By on April 20, 2017

President Donald Trump, flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, left, and Vice President Mike Pence, meets with members of the media regarding the health care overhaul bill, Friday, March 24, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump, flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, left, and Vice President Mike Pence, meets with members of the media regarding the health care overhaul bill, Friday, March 24, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

ATLANTA – The federal government will provide states nearly half a billion dollars for prevention and treatment programs aimed at confronting the opioid epidemic, which Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price described Wednesday as a “crisis.”

Price made the announcement at a drug prevention summit in Atlanta. The $485 million in grant money was contained in bipartisan legislation approved by Congress last year and signed by former President Barack Obama.

Puerto Rico’s share is of $4.8 million, according to La Fortaleza, which said the Health secretary wrote to Gov. Ricardo Rosselló on Wednesday announcing the disbursement to combat the addiction, use and health effects of opiates in the Puerto Rican population.

In La Fortaleza’s release, Puerto Rican Health Secretary Rafael Rodríguez Mercado thanked the administration of President Donald Trump and Price for “allocating these funds to treat the opiate-addicted population in Puerto Rico.”

“The funds will be administered by the Administration of Health and Against Addiction [AMSCA], directed by Susana Roig. Our department will work with Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and Secretary Tom Price to identify good practices and ensure efficient use of these funds,” the Health official added.

Price said another half-billion dollars in state grants will follow next year. He said states “know best what their communities need” and “have already been at the forefront of supporting prevention, treatment and recovery.”

In 2015, more than 33,000 people fatally overdosed on opioids, including prescription drugs and heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no other year on record has seen a higher number. Nearly half of the deaths involved a prescription opioid.

The grants are targeted at training for health professionals, technology and support for prescription drug monitoring programs that aim to prevent abuse and identify patients who may need help. Price said the grants also can be used to promote the use of overdose-reducing drugs such as naloxone.

Price said the Trump administration has a five-part strategy on opioids: improved access to treatment and recovery services; making overdose-reversing drugs more widely available; stepped-up public health surveillance of the epidemic; support for research on pain and addiction; and promoting better ways to help patients manage pain.

Price, a physician, said he also wants to review payments, prescribing guidelines and other processes overseen by Health and Human Services to ensure “that we are not pushing doctors toward quick fixes that risk lives.”

Price said a focus on managing patients’ pain combined with a misunderstanding of opioids’ risk encouraged many doctors to prescribe the drugs even if they weren’t necessary.

“There is no question that this overreach helped create the problem we have today, and that ending this epidemic requires going back to its roots,” he said.

Caribbean Business contributed to this report.

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