HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Family member 'Narcanned back to life'

BOSTON - Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders witnessed the life-saving powers of the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone this past weekend, she told a group of New England public health officials.

Naloxone, which is sold under the brand Narcan, gives people addicted to opioids a chance at recovery, Sudders told the News Service, and Bay State officials "believe in having it as accessible as possible."

"I watched a family member be Narcanned back to life. On Saturday. An extended family member with 40 years of addictions," Sudders told a New England gathering about the opioid epidemic held at The Boston Foundation. She said, "It touches all of us."

Curbing the state's opioid problem - which continues to kill at a rate of four lives per day, according to Sudders - became a major part of Gov. Charlie Baker's agenda because he heard from so many people about it on the 2014 campaign trail.

Naloxone is a tip of the spear in the state's efforts. Sudders, who has also witnessed Naloxone administered in a hospital, said it "literally brings them back. And they're clear."

"It saves a life and allows for intervention," Sudders told the News Service.

Sudders said she was interested in what Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Commissioner Miriam Delphin-Rittmon said at the forum, that in Connecticut first responders "must be trained and carry Naloxone."

"In Massachusetts it's municipality by municipality," said Sudders, who said 111 cities and towns are using Naloxone in Massachusetts, about a third of the state's total municipalities. She said, "Some collective bargaining contracts won't agree to carrying Naloxone."

Delphin-Rittmon said Connecticut's new opioid law generally limits initial opioid prescriptions to seven days - a feature of the new Massachusetts opioid law the governor signed in March. Baker had suggested limiting prescriptions to a fewer number of days and teamed up with New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan to pitch limits on initial opioid prescriptions as a national model.

Long brewing, the widespread addiction to opioid painkillers, heroin and the supercharged narcotic Fentanyl has exploded into the national consciousness over the past few years.

According to Sudders's presentation to the group, there were 12,982 Naloxone administrations in Massachusetts in 2015, up from 7,002 in 2013. Unintentional opioid-related overdose deaths surpassed deaths caused by motor vehicle injuries a little more than a decade ago.

In 2015 opioid deaths totaled an estimated 1,526, almost five times the number of auto-related fatalities, according to the presentation.

"In many ways we should have seen it coming," said Sudders, who said those close to it did recognize the looming crisis. Giving credit to the Patrick administration - which signed a law mandating insurance coverage of detox treatment and declared an opioid-related public health emergency in March 2014 - Sudders said, "The prior administration actually started to address the opioid crisis."

The 2014 law, which went into effect last fall, requires insurers to cover 14 days of acute treatment and stabilization for treatment of addiction.

The Senate last Friday passed a Sen. John Keenan bill (S 2432) to expand the mandate to 30 days of addiction coverage, a move opposed by the insurance industry.

"Thirty days is a critical point in the treatment continuum, and not having insurance coverage up to that point I think is impeding our efforts to address the epidemic," Keenan told the News Service last week.

Sudders said the 14-day mandate law has been working well from what her friends in the treatment community tell her, and noted that while addiction recovery is a long-term process, elements of long-term recovery - such as access to housing, employment and "life skills" training - are not strictly medical.

"I have not heard complaints and I try to stay pretty grounded to that community," Sudders, a trained social worker, told the News Service. She said, "Is 14 days enough? It may be for many people. And for other people it may be more than that. But we're still pretty new in the 14 days and I have not been hearing complaints."

A letter from a number of health insurers said the 14-day and 30-day standards are "arbitrary," and said after the 2014 law investors are creating "high cost treatment centers" where Medicaid members are excluded.

The Baker administration has made progress on other fronts in the state's handling of drug-addicted people and access to addictive drugs.

Sudders said there are no longer any civil commitments for addiction at a women's correctional institution in Framingham, and she will be at Taunton State Hospital on Wednesday to open 30 new addiction treatment beds.

In addition to cracking down on illegal drug traffickers, state officials aim to tamp down on people doctor-shopping to abuse legal prescription painkillers.

Sudders said that on Aug. 22 a new prescription monitoring program will go live, linking Massachusetts's records to all the New England states and the Veterans Administration.