New city project aims to improve opioid treatment (AP)

Tuesday May 1st, 2018

A new city health project aims to evaluate Baltimore’s hospitals on their efforts to improve treatment for opioid use disorders.

Leaders from Baltimore’s 11 hospitals joined the city’s mayor and its health commissioner to announce the new effort on Monday. The initiative is intended to identify “best practices” for responding to the opioid epidemic.

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The number of Baltimore children with lead poisoning fell 19 percent in 2017, even as more children were tested for exposure to the powerful neurotoxin.

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When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

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Azar Unveils Plan to Help Pregnant Patients Quit Opioids (MedPage Today)

States will get help from the federal government integrating services for pregnant and postpartum Medicaid patients with opioid use disorder under a pilot program announced Tuesday by Health and Hu

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