Rural Health
News by Topic: Illicit drug use
Nov 29, 2023 - A Louisiana hospital has received funding to address opioid misuse. Discusses medication assisted treatment, access to naloxone, access to services in rural areas, and prevention efforts for youth.
Source: The Current
Nov 27, 2023 - Discusses the work of the Reaching Rural Initiative, a program offering collaboration to address the rural opioid crisis. Highlights a project in North Carolina developed as part of the Initiative which offers a new community paramedicine program and reentry navigators which help recently incarcerated people access treatment and therapy services.
Source: Route Fifty
Nov 27, 2023 - Highlights a project a focused on mental health, opioid misuse prevention, and their associated stigmas for youth in rural Georgia.
Source: Jackson Progress-Argus
Nov 16, 2023 - Notice of final rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) making changes to the following: 1) Physician Fee Schedule and Medicare Part B payment policies; 2) payment for dental services inextricably linked to specific covered medical services; 3) Medicare Shared Savings Program requirements; 4) updates to the Quality Payment Program; 5) Medicare coverage of opioid use disorder services furnished by opioid treatment programs; 6) updates to certain Medicare and Medicaid provider enrollment policies; 7) electronic prescribing for controlled substances for a covered Part D drug under a prescription drug plan or an MA-PD plan; 8) updates to the Ambulance Fee Schedule regulations and the Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection System; 9) expansion of the diabetes screening and diabetes definitions; 10) pulmonary rehabilitation, cardiac rehabilitation and intensive cardiac rehabilitation expansion of supervising practitioners; 11) appropriate use criteria for advanced diagnostic imaging; 12) early release of Medicare Advantage risk adjustment data; and 13) a social determinants of health risk assessment in the annual wellness visit and Basic Health Program. This rule also codifies provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act and Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Includes rural references throughout. These regulations are effective on January 1, 2024.
Source: Federal Register
Nov 16, 2023 - Highlights the harm reduction strategy one Wisconsin tribe has implemented to reduce mortality from the opioid crisis. Discusses stigma, the high rates of overdose deaths for native people in Wisconsin, and the potential for harm reduction to lead to effective treatment. Describes their successes as a model for other Indigenous communities as well as harm reduction in general.
Source: STAT News
Nov 16, 2023 - Describes the hub-and-spoke model of opioid use disorder treatment pioneered in Vermont and the impact of a new synthetic drug on the effectiveness of the system.
Source: News From The States, KFF Health News
Nov 15, 2023 - A new research center studying opioid effects in infant and children is being built in Arkansas. Part of the mission is to research and train rural Arkansas hospitals on new methods for treating addiction in newborns with the goal of expanding treatment access nationwide.
Source: Axios
Nov 9, 2023 - Highlights the impact of a naloxone vending machine in a rural Vermont community. Describes the trend to offer naloxone not just through vending machines but also through awareness programming throughout rural America.
Source: The Daily Yonder
Nov 7, 2023 - Describes how the Veteran's Administration is using telehealth to offer opioid use disorder treatment, noting the benefits this offers rural residents and others.
Source: Veteran's Administration
Oct 27, 2023 - Describes a project that trains rural primary care providers in New Mexico on offering medication-assisted treatment to patients with opioid use disorder (MOUD). Discusses how the Project ECHO model has increased MOUD care access in rural areas.
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality