More money on the way to help combat opiod epidemic in Kansas

As overdose deaths decrease in Kansas, the state is preparing to distribute more opioid settlement funds to continue to fuel the downward trend.

The next rounds of funding are focused on expanding access to medications for opioid use disorders (MOUD) and creating a revolving grant for providers.

“These are multi-year grants,” Assistant Attorney General Chris Teters said. “These are grants for very targeted areas, very targeted services, very targeted treatments, and we’re going to grow them over time.”

The funds come from a national settlement agreement with opioid manufacturers and distributors for their role in the opioid crisis, resulting in about $400 million for the state over the next 12 years.

Past funding has gone to expand treatment and prevention efforts. New funding has been on hold while the state board that allocates the money conducted an assessment to figure out where it was most needed.

The assessment released last year showed that most residents in the state lacked access to medications for opioid use disorders, an evidence-based practice for getting people into long-term recovery.

Medical claims in the state reported less than 4% of people in substance use treatment received the medications.

“These medications are essential and are considered Gold Standard for management of physical and psychological recovery,” the report read.

Providers would have to apply for the MOUD program funding through a request for proposal process, which would award up to $500,000 a year for up to two years.

The revolving grant is an open funding opportunity through a separate application, with awards considered by the state board quarterly.

“Basically, this is a procedure [where] you can submit things, it’ll be reviewed on a regular basis, and we’ll try to get things moving on faster with that particular approach,” Teters said.

While not yet approved by the state board, more funds will become available later this year, likely for peer support workers and prevention for young adults.

“At the legislative level, and then across the state, there’s a lot of real focus on youth poisoning due to tainted pills and things like that,” Teters said. “It’s… a priority for a variety of different stakeholders in the space of really intervening in youth utilization of… these products, largely because there’s both the education gap and just a lot of different ways we can try to do some intervention to make certain folks are staying safe out there.”

The Center for Disease Control published provisional data this month showing overdose deaths down by 6% in Kansas last year.