The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Opioid package heads to president for signature
A package of bills aimed at addressing the opioid epidemic is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The U.S. Senate gave its final, near-unanimous approval of the opioid package in a vote Oct. 3. The president is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days.
The House of Representatives passed its version of the package this summer and the Senate passed its last month. The two sides reconciled the differences in the bill and it passed easily through both chambers.
Both of Ohio’s Senators have provisions in the final version of the bill.
Republican Rob Portman’s Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act aims aimed at quelling the flow of synthetic opioids like fentanyl into the U.S. from foreign countries.
It will require the U.S. Postal Service to provide information on at least 70 percent of international mail shipments by the end of the year. By 2020, the Postal Service will be required to provide data all international shipments. The agency will be able to block or destroy shipments when the required information is not included.
Under the bill, authorities will be able to waive the requirements for countries that don’t have the capacity to provide electronic information, as long as they are found to pose little risk to the U.S. and account for a small volume of mail shipments. Lawmakers believe that China does have the capacity to provide the required information.
“Passing the STOP Act is a victory in our efforts to combat the opioid crisis and stop the influx of cheap, deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl,” Portman said in a statement.
“By closing the loophole in our international mail system that drug traffickers have exploited to ship fentanyl into the U.S., we can help law enforcement keep this poison out of our communities and ensure those gripped by addiction the chance to live up to their God-given potential. I’ve worked for more than two years to get the STOP Act signed into law, so this is a proud day.”
Democrat Sherrod Brown’s Caring Recovery for Infants and Babies (CRIB) Act is also part of the package. It allows Medicaid to cover certain health care services provided to infants in residential pediatric recovery facilities in addition to hospitals and also clarify that babies receiving services in residential pediatric recovery centers can continue to receive services after one year of age, and provide for activities to encourage caregiver-infant bonding.
Brown has said it will help newborns suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, a withdrawal condition often caused by the use of opioids and other addictive substances in pregnant women.
According to Brown’s office, NAS cases have tripled in the past decade. In Ohio alone, NAS increased from 14 cases per 10,000 live births in 2004 to 88 cases per 10,000 live births in 2011. The Ohio Department of Health in 2015 released data that there were 2,174 hospital admissions for NAS and an average of 84 infants were being treated for drug withdrawal in Ohio hospitals every day.
“Final passage of the CRIB Act is a huge win for Ohio families and the treatment facilities that care for them,” Brown said in a statement. “I’ve heard from addiction treatment providers and healthcare workers across the state about the importance of giving newborns suffering from withdrawal a chance to grow up healthy. Today we help ensure Ohio moms and babies can access care at the facilities that give them that chance and best meet their needs.”
Another part of the packages changes a rule dating back to the creation of Medicaid that prohibited the program from covering patients with substance abuse disorders who were receiving treatment in mental health facilities with more than 16 beds.
The bill lifts that outdated rule to allow for 30 days of residential treatment coverage. Lifting the bed cap was included in the original House version of the bill but not the Senate’s.
Both Portman and Brown have supported the change.