Nevada makes plans for federal grant to combat opioid crisis

The state is developing its plans for a $5.6 million federal grant to combat opioid abuse.

Nevada is one of 45 states receiving the Opioid State Targeted Response Grant, aimed at fighting the national opioid crisis. The state is completing a needs assessment for the money, said DuAne Young, M.S., of Behavioral Health and Pharmacy Services.

“The purpose of this funding really is to address the opioid crisis, and how we do this is increase access to treatment, reduce the unmet need, and reduce opioid overdose related deaths,” Young said Tuesday, updating the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Health Care Financing and Policy. “This is through prevention, treatment and recovery.”

Opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The agency says prescription opioids surpass all drugs in ties to fatal overdoses, and Nevada is among states with the heaviest rates of opioid prescriptions per 100 people.

The two-year grant will mainly go to treatment, with 20 percent supporting prevention. Success in the first year will help determine funding for the second year, Young said.

“It really is kind of a moving target for us, but does allow us, unlike other traditional grants, to be flexible in our administration of this grant,” he said. “We’re going to really have to go above and beyond to demonstrate the effective use of these dollars.”

Sustainability is one of the priorities for the grant funding, Young said, since the dollars aren’t certain beyond the first year.

“We’re really looking to create sustainable options within Year One that we can continue as a state if we don’t continue to receive these funds,” he said.

The state needs to have a strategic plan for the grant completed by Aug. 30. Young said part of the plan will lay out the “hub and spoke” model for combating opioid abuse that was developed in Vermont, which was the nation’s leader in opioid use a few years ago.

The approach that combines the hubs of treatment centers with the spokes of health care professionals who treat opioid abuse patients.

“(Vermont) developed a very aggressive model that is being duplicated by the majority of states receiving this grant,” Young said, including Arizona, California and Hawaii.

Several state divisions are collaborating on plans to implement the grant, including licensed managed care organizations. Nevada offers three managed care organizations for Medicaid managed care recipients, with Better Amerigroup Community Care, Health Plan of Nevada and SilverSummit Healthplan serving as vendors.

“Some of the key strategies of this grant is to leverage and coordinate existing resources, address unmet needs in our opioid use disorder treatment and prevention within the state, and, again, just establish a sustainable infrastructure that addresses opioid use disorder within our state,” Young says.

Young told members of the health financing and policy division that he’d keep them updated as the grant was implemented.