Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Laws Block Nurses From Administering Anti-Addiction Medication
Confronting an opioid overdose epidemic that is killing at least 90 people every day, two federal agencies this month gave more than 700 nurse practitioners and physician assistants the authority to write prescriptions for the anti-addiction medication buprenorphine. ... Tens of thousands more nurse practitioners and physician assistants could be helping, too, by applying for a federal license to prescribe the potentially life-saving medicine. But laws in more than half the states are likely to prevent nurses from using their licenses in rural areas that need it most. (Vestal, 4/21)
The top government lawyers from 19 states are telling President Donald Trump and the Republican leaders of Congress not to pass health insurance changes that would stop the flow of federal drug treatment money. A letter sent Friday by a group of attorneys general for 19 states plus Washington D.C., is the latest in a series of actions from Democrats who hold those offices to oppose Trump's policies and actions. (Mulvihill, 4/21)
And in the states聽鈥
When Carin Miller鈥檚 son was about 19 years old, he began to abuse heroin by snorting pills, eventually moving on to shooting up. This went on for six years before he got help. Lucas Miller鈥檚 history of drug use started in high school with smoking marijuana. When he moved out of his parents鈥 house, one of his housemates had access to between 750 to 1,500 pills at any given time between five houses located in Frederick, Maryland. 鈥淢y son was addicted to heroin, he鈥檚 in recovery by the grace of God since Thanksgiving 2014, I think that鈥檚 where we are at,鈥 Miller said. (Nocera, 4/21)
The world knows Prince, who died a year ago Friday of a fentanyl overdose. Hundreds of other Minnesotans who've died during the years-long epidemic of heroin and other opioids remain largely unknown to anyone beyond those who loved them. Their names and causes of death are recorded in the Minnesota Health Department's database of the dead. (Sepic, 4/24)
Sanford鈥檚 medication-assisted therapy clinic in Bemidji prescribes buprenorphine to eliminate opioid cravings for women while they are pregnant, which also reduces the chances of premature births. The treatment itself leaves newborns prone to withdrawal symptoms after birth, so it is somewhat controversial, but mothers often cannot overcome opioid addiction without it, said Dr. Joe Corser, who directs the clinic. (Olson, 4/22)
Many Ohioans know the powerful painkiller fentanyl as a cold-blooded killer that preys indiscriminately on addicts: rich and poor, urban and rural, male and female. And most of them never knew what killed them. (Johnson and Candisky, 4/23)
Recovering alcoholics tend to avoid the bar. But when the bar is your office, that's not so easy. New Orleans bluesman Anders Osborne figured out how to get back to work despite the temptations, and now he's trying to help others. (Elliott, 4/22)
