Transportation Issues Hinder Opioid Treatment in Rural Areas, Experts Tell House Committee

  • Author: Liz Carey
  • Source: The Daily Yonder
  • Date: 01/30/2020

"Battling opioids in rural areas is more than just providing naloxone and reducing opioid prescriptions. It means looking at how addiction services are delivered and how to get patients to treatment, experts said during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing last week.

Witnesses testifying at the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on January 14  also said treating the opioid crisis in rural areas in the future will require that states have more flexibility on how they use federal funding. (Testimony and video are available on the web.)

Committee members called the hearing to determine whether federal funding is being used effectively.

In West Virginia, one of the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis, Christina Mullins, commissioner for the West Virginia Bureau of Behavioral Health in the Department of Health and Human Resources, said the state has reduced its opioid prescriptions and opioid doses by half."

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