In the News

GREENFIELD -- U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, briefed Massachusetts mayors Wednesday on a new federal legislative package aimed at curbing opioid abuse and addressing other issues tied to the addiction epidemic.

The congressman highlighted provisions contained in the bipartisan-backed "SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act" during a meeting of the Massachusetts Mayors Associations at the John Zon Community Center in Greenfield.

Neal offered that the legislation, which President Donald Trump signed into law Wednesday, will help Greenfield and other communities hit hard by the opioid epidemic increase treatment options, enhance prevention efforts and provide needed supports to those impacted by various aspects of the crisis. 

"They deal with the issue every day. They deal with street crime, they deal with the issues of addiction. Whether it's breaking and entering their cars, their homes -- whether or not there are more people in the homeless shelter who are addicted. ... So I think that talking to people who have to live with it every day at the local level is very important," he said in an interview after the meeting. 

The bill package, which cleared Congress with broad based support, includes several previously-passed House measures that seek to combat opioid abuse through Medicaid and Medicare coverage changes, among other things.

Specifically, the legislation calls for: Expanding Medicare coverage of opioid treatment programs and medication-assisted treatment, allowing more providers to treat opioid use disorder patients with Buprenorphine and mandating Medicaid coverage of all forms of medication-assisted treatment.

It further includes language to: Permanently allow physicians to treat up to 275 patients with Buprenorphine; provide consistent Medicaid coverage for at-risk youth; expand Medicaid coverage for foster youth until age 26; give the Federal Trade Commission stronger enforcement tools when bringing cases against companies that prey on individuals with opioid use disorders; and reauthorize and strengthen the Office of National Drug Control Policy, among other things.

Trump praised the legislation before signing it at a White House event.

The president further touted his administration's efforts to combat opioid abuse and pledged to "end the scourge of drug addiction in America ... or at least make an extremely big dent in this terrible, terrible problem."

Neal, who introduced the bill package with a bipartisan group of colleagues in June, however, acknowledged that if Trump and Republican lawmakers "keep trying to harm the (Affordable Care Act), that will be a problem" for the legislation.

"Medicaid, in the ACA, it was a front line opportunity to serve people. You could get more service because of the ACA for addiction issues than you could before. So the ACA's a pretty important component of it," he said. "And Medicare, the 65-year-olds and older they're going to now be able to now be treated and treatment will be reimbursed."

Neal, who offered standalone legislation last fall to require that Medicare cover methadone and other outpatient forms of medication-assisted treatment, held an October 2017 public forum on the opioid epidemic in Shelburne Falls.

In August, meanwhile, he briefed Hampden County Addiction Task Force members on the bipartisan bill package, as well as his efforts to expand coverage of opioid treatment programs and medication-assisted treatment. 

According to Massachusetts Department of Public Health estimates, nearly 16,000 people died in the state from opioid-related overdoses between 2000 and 2017.

Although opioid-related deaths have spiked in recent years -- hitting an estimated 2,154 in 2016 alone -- DPH reported that fatal overdoses decreased by 4 percent from 2016 to 2017.