Listen TennCare has tightened controls on opioid prescriptions in recent years, and the state’s Medicaid program plans to go a step further next year. It’s an effort to decrease the use of highly addictive narcotics — and save some money.
Tennessee Funnels Federal Money To Opioid Addiction Treatment For Patients Who Can’t Pay
Tennessee is getting $6 million to fund addiction treatment primarily for the state’s uninsured. The money will be targeted at six counties, including Davidson.
How Drug Combos Are Making Tennessee’s Opioid Problem Even More Deadly
Listen The combining of powerful drugs — both purposeful and unintentional — is making Tennessee’s opioid epidemic even more deadly. The latest figures out this month show 2016 was another record year for overdoses in the state — more than 1,600 people died. And experts say risky drug cocktails are compounding the problem.
Rep. DesJarlais Asks For Crackdown On Patients Who Share Narcotics
Congressman Scott DesJarlais wants a crackdown on patients who share pills. The Republican who represents Murfreesboro was once a doctor himself.
Latest Detox Drug For Opiates Will Be Regulated In Tennessee, But Maybe Not As Much As Methadone
Listen Tennessee lawmakers have grappled for two years with how to regulate the newest kind of opiate detox drugs — which have their own potential for abuse. They’ve found a compromise with doctors, who didn’t want to make getting help any harder for heroin addicts and pain pill abusers.
Statewide Plan To Target Prescription Drug Abuse Focuses On Treatment
Among the recommendations is to provide specialized treatment for mothers with addictions to painkillers. This comes months after the governor signed a bill that criminalizes pregnant women who harm their fetus by illegally using drugs without getting treatment.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM