The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Dear John,
States and the federal government have both taken action to address the opioid crisis, but are the resources being allocated to those who need them most?
Federal Opioid Funding Favors Least Populous States
The federal government has responded to the opioid crisis in numerous ways, including providing states funding for their own programs. In the May issue, Bradley Katcher and Christopher Ruhm examine how well these funds target the geographic areas with the greatest need. Using four opioid benchmarks and a composite indicator of opioid severity, they analyzed federal grant awards in 2017 and 2018 and foundfederal funding favors the least populous states, not states with the most severe opioid problems. “Approximately one-sixth of grant dollars…or around $1.5 billion, would have needed to be reallocated to equalize the opioid
severity–adjusted generosity of funding across states,” conclude Katcher and Ruhm. Today on Health Affairs Blog, Lucia Savage and Deven McGraw explore how the HHS Office of Civil Rights can improve HIPAA and advance interoperability. Also, Karen Wang and
colleagues write about equity in the design of health information systems.
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