PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE HIGHLIGHTS MURPHY’S ‘OVERDOSE PREVENTION AND PATIENT SAFETY ACT’

WASHINGTON, DC - In their coverage of the recently released interim report from the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlighted Congressman Tim Murphy's (PA-18) Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety (OPPS) Act (H.R.3545):

"The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis issued an interim report Monday... The report had eight recommendations, including one that could be enacted by legislation, called the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act, proposed by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair," the Post-Gazette reports.

In 1972, the Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Act created the 42 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 2, known simply as "Part 2." This policy was designed to protect the confidentiality of substance use in a medical record to encourage those with addiction disorders to seek treatment. However, nearly a half century later, in the midst of the worst drug crisis in United States history, doctors are effectively prohibited from knowing their patients' full medical history, leading them to unknowingly prescribe opioids to a patient in recovery which has caused countless relapses, harmful drug-to-drug interactions and overdose deaths.

The Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act removes this antiquated roadblock and realigns all substance use treatment records used for payment, treatment, or healthcare operation to the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), in lieu of Part 2. Additionally, the legislation provides important new protections against the inappropriate sharing of substance use treatment records, ensuring the highest level of privacy is maintained.

Learn more about Murphy's OPPS Act here https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=PA18TM&crop=0000.0000.0000.0000&report_id=&redirect=https%3a%2f%2fmurphy.house.gov%2fopioid-and-drug-addiction-crisis%2fthe-overdose-prevention-and-patient-safety-act%2f&redir_log=219438159202737.

Opioid crisis declaration will help in drug fight, Pa. officials and experts say

By Catherine Cray and Amelia Nierenberg

August 2, 2017

For Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, following through on a recommendation that the federal government declare a national drug emergency would acknowledge what many locally already know: "This is different. This is a crisis."

The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis issued an interim report Monday that urged the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency. The report had eight recommendations, including one that could be enacted by legislation, called the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act, proposed by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair.

Rep. Murphy is the only practicing psychologist in Congress and focuses much of his attention on changing the health care system.

His bill would allow information about a patient's history to be available to any doctor prescribing opioids. Such information is currently not easily accessible due to privacy regulations.

"People are baffled that it's not the current policy," Mr. Murphy said in an interview Tuesday. "When a person has an addiction disorder, the sad truth is that they often withhold information."

Now, patients who have struggled with substance abuse in the past or are currently fighting addiction have to sign a release to allow their history of addiction to go on their record, Mr. Murphy said. Patients would have to sign a release form for every doctor at every location for their addiction history to be available to physicians.

"If a person shows up into an emergency room and the doctors don't know ... they might make this mistake. And this has been a deadly mistake," he said.

The interim report's other recommendations include extending Medicaid coverage for drug treatment, mandating prescriber education, increasing the use of medication-assisted treatments, researching non-addictive pain medicines, spreading the use of naloxone and preventing fentanyl from crossing U.S. borders.

David Hickton, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania who chaired the National Heroin Task Force in 2015, said that while the recommendations are all based on good evidence, they're nothing new.

"I'm looking for more substance and more action," he said. "Research is necessary. Investment is necessary."

Marc Cherna, director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, pointed out that the recommendations show that the Trump administration is on board with established evidence-based care recommendations.

During a national emergency, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services can make grants, access money under the Public Health Emergency Fund, make temporary appointments, rearrange the responsibilities of existing staffers and adjust what Medicaid covers. These allowances would open up funding and resources to combat opioids.

Dr. Neil A. Capretto, medical director at Gateway Rehab, said Allegheny County needs these resources at all levels -- more naloxone to counter overdoses, more beds in treatment facilities and more education for prescribers to prevent new cases of addiction.

He said the county's "few specialty addiction programs can't meet all the needs."

Now, local agencies are competing for limited resources.

Dr. Hacker just applied for a grant to increase access to naloxone in Allegheny County. She knows she's competing with other counties that also need the drug.

"We need to step up and combine all of our resources," she said.

One of her greatest concerns is the prevalence of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, which she said was a cause of almost every overdose-related death she's seen in the past year.

The interim report recommended measures to prevent additional fentanyl from crossing U.S. borders.

"We have a serial killer and it's addiction," Dr. Capretto said. "It really takes the will of the people to make a change, not just a few isolated voices."

Read the full article online here https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=PA18TM&crop=0000.0000.0000.0000&report_id=&redirect=http%3a%2f%2fwww.post-gazette.com%2flocal%2fregion%2f2017%2f08%2f02%2fopioid-state-of-emergnecy-allegheny-county-drug-addiction-rep-tim-murphy-pa%2fstories%2f201708020068&redir_log=61910674099987.

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