FDA Advisors Recommend Over-the-Counter Use of Narcan
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel this week voted 19-0 to recommend the agency approve the anti-opioid overdose drug Narcan be made available as an over-the-counter drug.
Narcan is currently available by prescription only, and the change would make it the first opioid overdose reversal drug to be made available over the counter. News reports noted the FDA advisors also asked that the manufacturer make it more clear to users how to administer the product.
The FDA is expected to make a final decision by March 29.
CDC Releases Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011-2021
Female students were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide during the past year compared with their male peers, with nearly six in 10 feeling persistently sad or hopeless and more than one in 10 attempting suicide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in its
Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011-2021 this week.
The data provide a critical view of U.S. adolescent health and well-being related to sexual behavior, substance use, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This year’s report also includes data on students’ experiences of unstable housing, school connectedness, and parental monitoring to expand understanding of young people’s environments and opportunities to improve them.
In the CDC’s words, the findings “tell a distressing story” about the health and well-being of our country’s young people. According to the report, female students experienced more violence, mental health challenges, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and substance use than their male peers. For instance, the percentage of female students who had ever experienced forced sex increased for the first time in 10 years, with 14% of female students having this experience.
Meanwhile, attempted suicide was higher among Black students than students from other groups and increased among Black and White students from 2011 to 2021. And LGBQ+ students were nearly four times as likely as their heterosexual peers to attempt suicide during the past year, with more than two in 10 reporting this experience.
CDC Provisional Data Show U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths High but Declining
Provisional
data from the CDC this week show the number of U.S. drug overdose deaths, while still high, has declined.
The CDC predicts there were 106,840 drug overdose deaths for the 12-month period ended September 2022 compared with 107,937 predicted drug overdose deaths for the 12-month period ended August 2021. And when comparing month-over-month statistics in 2022, the numbers show a steady decline, starting with 110,317 predicted overdose deaths in March 2022.
In a
statement last month, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Rahul Gupta, M.D. attributed the progress to the Biden administration’s efforts to remove barriers to treatment and disrupting the supply of illicit drugs.
SAMHSA Releases National Substance Use and Mental Health Services Survey, 2021
More than two-thirds of substance use treatment facilities (69.5%) offered pharmacotherapies as part of their treatment services, with a higher percentage of substance use facilities reporting they used medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for treating opioid use disorder (55.3%) than for treating alcohol use disorder (37.9%).
Those were among the findings of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA)
National Substance Use and Mental Health Services Survey, 2021 released this week.
Researchers gathered data from April 30, 2021 through January 10, 2022 for the 35-page report, which is the most comprehensive national source of data on substance use and mental health treatment facilities, its territories, and Washington, D.C.
NABH Submits Comments to SAMHSA on Opioid Treatment Program Regulations
This week NABH submitted a comment letter to SAMHSA on the Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) regulations 42 CFR part 8.
In it, NABH wrote that the association appreciates SAMHSA’s flexibility to OTPs, including new authority to provide methadone induction via telehealth. NABH was the first organization to advocate for this change when COVID-19 social-distancing measures made it hard for individuals to access methadone treatment.
NABH expressed concerns and called for SAMHSA to remove changes to accreditation standards that would prematurely trigger one-year or non-accreditation status.
Click
here to read NABH’s letter.
NABH Submits Comments to CMS on Medicare Advantage
Also this week, NABH submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) about policy and technical changes to Medicare Advantage (MA) for calendar year 2024.
NABH noted that the association appreciates the proposed rule’s focus on improving access to and quality of care through increasing both the oversight and transparency of insurers. In particular, NABH supports the rule’s proposed improvements related to prior authorization, network adequacy, and quality of care, many of which NABH and its partners have long pursued.
The association outlined a series of recommendations to CMS on topics such as clarifying “Original Medicare” standards as minimum requirements for MA; improving medical necessity; streamlining prior authorization requirements; and, regarding the rule’s proposed reduction of the overpayment window, allowing a reasonable time of about six months for providers to conduct investigations, and, when necessary, process a refund.
Click
here to read NABH’s letter.
Reminder: NABH-Manatt Telehealth Issue Brief Webinar on Wednesday, March 1
Manatt will host a webinar featuring NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin and some NABH members as panelists on
Wednesday, March 1 at noon ET to highlight findings from the telehealth issue brief that the NABH Education and Research Foundation and Manatt released this month.
The telehealth issue brief is the first resource from the NABH Education and Research Foundation, which worked with NABH members and Manatt to compile and evaluate data to measure the impact that telehealth services have had on access and outcomes. The study showed how telehealth services effectively augment traditional partial hospitalization programs (PHP) and intensive outpatient programs (IOP).
NABH urges its members to read the issue brief and share it with others. The association has also created a social media toolkit with shareable graphics that highlight key research from the study. Members can access the issue brief and social media toolkit on the NABH Education and Research Foundation’s Resources
page.
Click
here to register for next month’s free webinar.
Reminder: Please Submit Data to Enhance NABH’s Managed-Care Advocacy Efforts
Thank you to all members who have submitted data to NABH’s denial-of-care portal. Your data will help NABH highlight problems in the field related to health plan denials and timeliness.
Several policymaking entities are interested in these data, which could support advocacy for expanded access to care. For new participants, please e-mail
Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, for support.
Details Coming Soon for the NABH 2023 Annual Meeting
Please plan to join us in Washington, DC from
June 12-14, 2023 for this year’s NABH Annual Meeting at the Salamander Washington, DC (formerly the Mandarin Oriental hotel). Details coming soon.
Fact of the Week
Some data brokers are marketing highly sensitive data on individuals’ mental health conditions on the open market, with seemingly minimal vetting of customers and seemingly few controls on using purchased data, according to a
study from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.
