HHS updates report on oversight of opioid prescribing and monitoring of opioid abuse

The Office of Inspector General (OIG), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced an update to a previously published report on the oversight of opioid prescribing and monitoring of opioid use. The initial report, published in 2019, summarized and compared information provided by eight States: Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia. The update includes audits from an additional three States: Alabama, Kentucky, and Ohio. The report found that States have created policies and procedures, passed laws and regulations, used opioid-related data to perform data analytics, performed outreach to providers and patients, and implemented a number of opioid-related prevention, detection, and treatment programs.