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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is proposing to expand access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) by making permanent medication flexibilities put in place during the COVID pandemic, including an increase in number of take-home doses of methadone and the use of telehealth in initiating buprenorphine at opioid treatment programs (OTPs).

In its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update 42 CFR Part 8, SAMHSA is proposing to improve access to OUD treatment through OTPs. The proposed changes reflect the widespread desire by many stakeholders for SAMHSA to provide greater autonomy to OTP practitioners, positively support recovery, and continue flexibilities that were extended at the start of the nation’s COVID-19 public health emergency. For example, in March and April 2020, SAMHSA published flexibilities for the provision of take-home doses of methadone and for the use of telehealth in initiating buprenorphine in OTPs. Patients deemed stable by physicians have been able to take home up to 28 days’ worth of methadone doses; other patients — again, so determined by their physicians — received up to a 14-day supply. A recent study showed that patients who received increased take-home doses after federal flexibilities were enacted during COVID-19 saw positive impacts on their recovery, including being more likely to remain in treatment and less likely to use illicit opioids.

Read the full announcement.

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The PA Department of Health and Penn State University have created a survey to better understand PPE knowledge amongst healthcare workers in Pennsylvania, including dental providers and office teams. In addition to PPE knowledge, they would like to better understand healthcare worker feelings about vaccinations and mental health. All responses are anonymous.

This survey should take you no more than 10–20 minutes, and people who complete the entire survey will be able to register for two chances to win a $250 gift card. Participants can access the survey here.

If you have any questions regarding the survey, please reference the contact information within the flyer.

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When it comes to something as serious as concussion — an injury that is estimated to occur every 15 seconds in the United States — the faster you receive a diagnosis, the faster you can get back to the things you love. And yet, over half of people who suspect they have a concussion never get it checked.

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) is proud to be the cofounder of Concussion Awareness Now, a coalition of organizations dedicated to changing how society views concussion. It’s not tough to tough it out. And if you hit your head, you should get it checked.

The Concussion Awareness Now coalition includes nearly 20 partners, including organizations that determine guidelines for concussion care, advocate for patients, and work with communities who are vulnerable to concussions. Together, we have decades of experience in the brain injury community and the resources to create a rallying cry for awareness and, ultimately, action. Our goal is to help reshape how society views concussion so that people get the care they need.

Learn more at Concussion Awareness Now and follow the coalition on Facebook and Instagram.

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Photo by Mikael Blomkvist from Pexels

Alice Burns; Follow @alicelevyburns on Twitter, Molly O’Malley Watts, and Meghana Ammula; Follow @meg_ammula on Twitter

Home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers allow states to offer a wide range of benefits and to choose — and limit — how many people receive services. The only HCBS that states are required to cover is home health, but states may choose to cover personal care and other services, such as private duty nursing. Those benefits are generally available to all Medicaid enrollees who need them. States may use HCBS waivers to offer expanded personal care benefits or to provide additional services such as adult day care, supported employment, and non-medical transportation. Because waivers may only be offered to specific populations, states often provide specialized benefits through waivers that are specific to the population covered. For example, states might use an HCBS waiver to provide supported employment only to people under age 65.

States’ ability to cap the number of people enrolled in HCBS waivers can result in waiting lists when the number of people seeking services exceeds the number of waiver slots available. Waiting lists reflect the populations a state chooses to serve, the services it decides to provide, and the resources it commits. In addition, states’ waiting list management approaches differ with regard to prioritization and eligibility screening processes, making comparisons across states difficult. States are only able to use waiting lists for optional services, so the number of people on waiting lists can increase when states offer a new waiver or make new services available within existing waivers; in these cases, the number of people receiving services increases, but so does the number of people on a waiting list. In many cases, people may need additional services, but the state doesn’t offer them to anyone or only offers them to people with certain types of disabilities. The unmet needs of those people would not be reflected in the waiting list numbers. Finally, although people may wait a long time to receive waiver services — 45 months on average — many of the people waiting for services receive other types of HCBS while they wait [read the full article].

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