(INDIANAPOLIS) – Indiana’s fight against opioids will get a boost from a new federal law signed last week by President Trump:
Drug czar Jim McClelland says Indiana is already pursuing several of the ideas included in the opioid package. A Medicaid waiver earlier this year allowed the state to provide coverage for up to a month of rehab through Medicaid, and expand treatment capacity by skirting a law which caps treatment facilities at 16 beds. But McClelland says the law locks in a federal grant program for another five years, and includes some new ideas, including programs focused on treatment and prevention of addiction among at-risk teenagers. It also offers a pathway to train more addiction specialists by expanding financial aid for training.
And McClelland praises steps aimed at making it harder to ship the painkiller fentanyl into the U.S. He says it remains to be seen whether those measures will be effective, but says if they are, it could reduce overdoses significantly.
(Photo: backpack555/Thinkstock)
