Who should get the opioid settlement money?

With a key test trial coming up and settlements already being reached, stakeholders are eyeing how they can nab a chunk of the billions that could come from the massive opioid litigation. Now, there’s a new proposal: Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Gordon Gee, the president of West Virginia University and chair of the university’s health system, have formed a nonprofit called Citizens for Effective Opioid Treatment advocating that any settlement funding go to support hospitals and health infrastructure, instead of to local and state governments. “We need to make sure the money will go to treat the problem,” Kasich said on a call with reporters, adding that it should help “people on the front lines.” Kasich pointed to the tobacco settlement, which largely funded state budgets instead of treatment and prevention programs, to argue that any opioid money should be dedicated to the addiction crisis.

Separately, the Trump administration just unveiled a proposed relaxation of privacy rules for patients with a history of addiction. HHS Secretary Alex Azar told STAT it could prevent clinicians from prescribing opioids or other dangerous drugs to patients who had been treated for addiction. More on that here.