MEETING MINUTES
IDHS/SUPR Director David T. Jones welcomed the group.
IDHS/SUPR Updates
Director Jones gave the following updates:
- SUPR and the Illinois Helpline for Opioids and Other Substances are launching a toolkit of resources for clinicians interested in prescribing medications to address opioid use disorder. A demo will be provided at the Advisory Council meeting in March.
- A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for Permanent Supportive Housing is available on the SUPR website. Organizations must demonstrate their understanding of the Housing First approach. Housing is not dependent on an individual's interest in treatment or other substance use disorder (SUD) services.
- It is anticipated that the State Opioid Action Plan (SOAP) will be released in early 2022.
- The Access Narcan program has been implemented. Entities can enroll as a drug overdose prevention program (DOPP) and order naloxone at no cost.
IDHS/Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) Updates
Sarah Pointer PharmD, PMP Clinical Director, gave the following updates:
- The first PMP newsletter will go out in January. The quarterly newsletter will provide PMP statistics, educational resources, and legislative updates.
- The peer review committee is required by statute to identify prescriber and dispenser activity that may be outside standards of practice. The peer review committee has started requesting information from prescribers that meet certain opioid and chronic pain thresholds to determine if additional educational resources for these prescribers are warranted.
- The PMP is working with SUPR to move forward with the opioid treatment program (OTP) reporting process that was changed by SAMHSA to allow OTPs to report to the PMP. The PMP is working on a patient consent form to obtain consent in order to share the confidential data required by the statute.
- The PMP is working with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations (IDFPR) to improve the process for identifying prescribers who maintain a controlled substance license that are not registered as required by Public Act 100-0564.
- The EHR mandate went into effect last January. Beginning in January 202, the PMP will be working on a process to implement fines for any EHR vendor or facility that willfully does not comply with requirements. By statute, all EHRs must be integrated with the PMP.
IDPH Updates
Jennifer Epstein, Assistant Deputy Director, Office of Policy, Planning and Statistics, gave the following updates:
Illinois Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council December 2021 Meeting Minutes 2
HFS Updates
Arvind Goyal, MD, Medical Director gave the following updates:
- HFS is partnering with the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy to provide evidenced-based, non-commercial educational programs (web-based curriculum and academic educator outreach) to Medicaid prescribers as required by PA 101-0278. HFShas reached 450 Medicaid prescribers statewide.
- The Drug Utilization Review (DUR) Board is enhancing appropriate opioid prescribing. Some of those activities have included:
- Instituting a five-day limit for opioids prescribed for acute pain for opioid-naïve patients (previously this was seven days);
- An audit of dental opioid prescribing for 2020; and
- A Naloxone co-prescription and prescription review. Top prescribers are 1) Chief Medical Officers or Medical Directors at organizations with standing orders and 2) addiction medicine professionals. The highest numbers of prescriptions come from the Chicago metro area. Walgreens is the top dispenser of Naloxone in the state.
- In accordance with State law, long acting injectables used to treat SUD in the hospital will receive an add-on payment. This is effective January 2022 pending approval by CMS.
Helpline Campaign
Kathleen Monahan, MPH, IDHS/SUPR SOR Project Director
* IDHS/SUPR is launching a statewide Helpline brand awareness campaign. It includes TV ads in all major markets, including Spanish; bus ads on the west and south sides of Chicago; video at the gas pump; and posters in convenience stores. The campaign will start on December 13 and will run for 6-8 weeks.
Presentation: Illinois Maternal Morbidity & Mortality Report
Cara Jane Bergo, PhD, MPH, Maternal Mortality Epidemiologist, IDPH, gave the following presentation on the April 2021 Illinois Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report
- The April 2021 Illinois Maternal Morbidity and Mortality report pdf. The report covers pregnancy-associated deaths in Illinois during 2016-2017.
- Just under half of pregnancy-associated deaths were due to medical causes (46%); 43% were due to violent causes (suicide, homicide, and drug overdose), with drug overdoses making up the largest group; other injuries (mostly vehicle accidents) made up 12%.
- Opportunities for prevention relate to quality of care, care coordination, postpartum follow-up and support, mental health and substance use, and social determinants of health.
- For more information, contact Dr. Bergo at cara.bergo@illinois.gov .
Presentation: Illinois Learning Collaborative to Support Medication Assisted Recovery (MAR) Implementation for Justice-Involved Populations: Update to Illinois Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council
Bren Manaugh, LCSW-S, CCTS, Principal, Health Management Associates gave the following presentation (see attached handouts).
* Funded by SOR, the Illinois MAR Learning Collaborative for Justice-Involved Populations aims to address access to SUD treatment for people in jail. The project is with eight county jails: DuPage, Grundy, Iroquois, Kane, Kendall, Lake, Lasalle, Will. Each county team includes the sheriff, county health partners and community stakeholders.
Illinois Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council December 2021 Meeting Minutes 3
- Project participants are providing access to continuation and/or initiation of at least two forms of the three FDA-approved medications (naltrexone, buprenorphine, and methadone).
- Since May 2021, progress includes:
- Jails have moved from offering no medications for MAR or using only naltrexone toward offering all three FDA-approved medications,
- There has been an increase in the number of detainees receiving MAR in custody,
- Jails are adding access to methadone where clinically indicated, and
- There has been an increase in the number of jail providers with X-waiver.
- To help support MAR treatment for jail detainees, HMA asks everyone to promote the learning collaborative among partners in other counties. HMA will talk with any group about this work. For more information, contact Bren Manaugh at bmanaugh@healthmanagement.com or 210-325-1507.
New Business
Telligen is holding a virtual community Discovery Session on December 15th at 11:00 am-12:00 pm CST on opioids and adverse drug events in Illinois. Council members are invited to participate in this planning forum.
March 2022 Council Meeting
Our next meeting will be March 21, 2022, from 1-2:30 PM. This will be a virtual meeting. The meeting agenda and information on how to connect to the meeting will be sent out to the Council closer to the meeting date. Minutes from prior meetings can be found on the IDHS website.
