President Trump signs opioid package into law

President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan opioid bill into law aiming increasing treatment options.

It was recently estimated that more than 500,000 years of life were lost in Ohio over a seven-year period due to the opioid epidemic.

President Donald Trump on Oct. 24 signed a bipartisan opioid bill into law aiming increasing treatment options and seeking to quell an epidemic that has devastated Ohio and other states.

Ohio’s U.S. Senators, who both have provisions tucked into the bill, applauded the legislation officially becoming law.

“Today’s bill signing is a major victory for Ohio and for the country, and it marks a significant step forward in our efforts to turn the tide of addiction,” Republican Rob Portman said in a statement. “Importantly, this bill will increase access to longterm treatment and recovery while also helping stop the flow of deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl from being shipped into the United States through our own Postal Service.”

Democrat Sherrod Brown said the “addiction epidemic has taken too many lives and caused too much devastation in Ohio to become a partisan issue.”

“I’m proud Sen. Portman and I are able to work together to get significant, bipartisan legislation signed into law to stop dangerous drugs at the border and keep them out of Ohio communities,” Brown said.

Fentanyl and its analogs are now responsible for more than half of the annual overdose deaths in Ohio. A majority of the fentanyl entering the United States is being shipped from overseas, namely China. Portman’s Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act, part of the opioid package, aims to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.

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 on 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.

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.

Another part of the bill 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 and have called the existing policy arcane.

The bill also creates national quality standards and best practices for recovery houses, which help people more easily transition from treatment into regular life. Ohio has offered accreditation for recovery houses since 2014. Portman’s office said that will now be the national standard.

The Fighting the Opioid Epidemic with Sunshine Act requires drug companies and medical device makers to publicly disclose the payments that they make to nurse practitioners and physician assistants for promotional talks, consulting, and other interactions, just as they are required to for payments made to physicians and academic medical centers, according to Brown’s office.

The Trauma Informed Care Act for Children and Families creates an interagency taskforce to develop best practices to support at-risk children and families who have experienced trauma, such as parental substance use, according to Brown’s office. The taskforce will also promote practices to “help parents, foster parents, and kinship caregivers to prevent and treat childhood trauma and allow the CDC to work with states to collect and report data on childhood trauma.” The act increases funding to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and create grants to support mental health care for youth in schools.

Another provision supports medical schools and residency programs that train students and residents in addiction medicine.

According to Portman’s office, increase the number of physicians who can prescribe buprenorphine will help promote greater access to treatment in Ohio. Buprenorphine is used in medicine-assisted treatment for patients with opioid dependency.

The state has eight medical schools and Portman’s office said they will be better able to prepare students entering the medical profession with training to help those struggling with addiction.