7th Annual National Opioid Crisis Management Congress

7:15am – 8:00am

Conference Registration & Networking Breakfast

8:00am – 8:15am

Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

8:15am – 9:00am

9:00am – 9:45am

Combatting the Opioid Epidemic

Monitoring opioid use and access to drugs to treat opioid use disorder and to naloxone – the opioid overdose-reversal drug – has always been critical to fighting the opioid crisis. Actions in these areas advance prevention, detection, and enforcement of fraud, waste and abuse in programs that intersect with the opioid epidemic and help ensure quality care and treatment for those in need of services. Topics to be discussed will include:

- Identifying and holding accountable those engaged in fraud

- Empowering and collaborating with partners through data sharing and education

9:45am – 10:15am

Networking & Refreshments Break

10:15am – 11:00am

Educator’s Role in Opioid Crisis Management

Schools continue to confront the devastation of the opioid epidemic. Schools are an ideal place to focus on prevention and harm reduction. This session will explore what educators can do to help our youth so that they don’t have such a large risk of overdose later in life. The benefits of partnerships between school districts and health organizations will also be explored.

11:00am – 11:45am

The Role of Health IT in Preventing Substance Use Disorders/Opioid Use Disorders

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are one of the most promising tools available to improve opioid over-prescribing, identify drug-seeking behavior, and inform clinical practice and decisions. PDMPs are state-run electronic databases that provide critical health information to physicians and other healthcare providers about an individual’s history of controlled substance prescriptions. This session will explore the role of health IT in preventing SUD/OUD, including advancing and scaling health IT integrations for improved opioid prescribing, as well as advancing PDMP and HER integration.

11:45am – 12:30pm

Improving Opioid Prescribing Practices

Healthcare teams and providers who prescribe, administer or distribute opioids for chronic pain need to understand the challenges of opioid prescribing, the goal to maintain adequate and safe pain control for chronic pain, and to avoid drug diversion and abuse to provide the best patient outcomes and prevent misuse. This session will explore best practices in evaluating and managing pain with opioids and understanding the healthcare team's and provider's role in managing patients requiring opioids for chronic pain while simultaneously avoiding their misuse and/or diversion.

12:30pm – 1:30pm

Luncheon

1:30pm – 2:15pm

Lowering Barriers to Medication Treatment for People with Opioid Use Disorder

Overdose deaths have reached unprecedented levels in the U.S., despite effective medications to treat opioid use disorders (OUDs). Because the regulatory and administrative barriers to treatment are high, only about 11 percent of people with OUD receive effective medications, which include buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone. In response, clinicians and advocates have looked to a “low threshold” approach that reduces the stigma surrounding effective medications and facilitates their use. This session will explore the barriers to treatment, the evidence on the low-threshold approach, and areas for future research.

2:15pm – 3:15pm

Panel:

Opioid Epidemic Response: Employer Toolkit

Substance use and substance use disorder affects employees, workplaces, families and communities. Employers have the opportunity to identify early signs and symptoms of a substance use disorder and help connect employees to treatment and recovery supports. Substance use disorder impacts workplace safety, health care costs, productivity, absenteeism and job performance. Not only are individual employees affected by substance use disorder; any employee may have a partner, child or family member that is struggling with a substance use disorder. When employers respond to the opioid epidemic, it benefits the employee and the people that surround them. It is good for employees and good for business. This session will explore steps employers can take to be a part of the opioid epidemic response.

3:15pm – 3:45pm

Networking & Refreshments Break

3:45pm – 4:30pm

Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention

The opioid epidemic is taking a toll on individuals, families and communities across the nation. Often those suffering from addiction want help but do not know where to turn. An industry of fraudulent addiction treatment programs, recovery centers and products has sprouted up to take advantage of this need and uncertainty. These corrupt centers target those seeking help through the use of targeted marketing practices, including online advertisements, referral call centers, and paid bounties to unscrupulous salespeople. Once they've reeled patients in, the dangerous actions of bogus treatment programs and centers only increases the likelihood of further harm to opioid misusers. This session will explore strategies to stamp out fraud and abuse when it comes to a category of drug that is highly susceptible to being abused.

4:30pm – 5:15pm

The Role of Electronic Prescriptions in Halting Opioid Fraud

The opioid epidemic is one of the largest challenges faced by the healthcare industry today. While such a large-scale and intricate issue has no simple solution, there are simple steps healthcare providers and organizations can take to mitigate the risk of opioid abuse. One of the best tools to combat this crisis is e-prescribe, and the value goes far beyond the simple security of electronic prescriptions. This session will explore the ways electronic prescriptions help protect patients and prescribers.

5:15pm

End of Day One

7:15am – 8:00am

Networking Breakfast

8:00am – 8:15am

Chairperson’s Remarks

8:15am – 9:00am

Mental Health and Opioid Use Disorder: Old and New Public Health Crises Intertwine

Opioid use disorder is associated with other mental health problems, trauma, and social and health disparities. Co-occurring substance use and mental disorders among people with opioid use disorder increase risk for morbidity and mortality. Addressing these co-occurring conditions is critical for improving treatment and health outcomes. This session will examine the effectiveness of new policies to improve access to treatment for opioid use and mental health.

9:00am – 9:45am

Opioid Epidemic and Pain Management

This session will focus on common types of pain and how to differentiate the signs and symptoms of pain. It will consider pain management strategies and the impact of the opioid crisis on treating patients. Topics to be discussed will include:

- Identifying and differentiating the signs and symptoms of common types of pain

- Identifying the components of pain assessment

- Pain management strategies and the impact of the opioid crisis in pain management

- Provider barriers that impact effective pain management

9:45am – 10:15am

Networking & Refreshments Break

10:15am – 11:00am

Reducing Barriers to Treating Substance Use Disorder Using Remote Patient Monitoring

The opioid epidemic has increased demand for behavioral health services and exacerbated the behavioral health workforce shortage, which disproportionately burdens rural and underserved areas. Reasons for access limitations may include lack of lack of primary care physicians with experience in behavioral health treatment and specialty substance use disorder treatment providers. In addition, privacy and stigma concerns remain pervasive. This session will examine how remote patient monitoring can connect geographically dispersed patients and providers, and how it can be a promising approach to expand access.

11:00am – 11:45am

Health Plan Strategies to Reduce the Harms of Opioids

Opioid use disorder impacts the entire healthcare sector, including employer-sponsored, private public health plans. Employers, law enforcement and health plans all have strong motivations to combat the misuse of opioids to reduce expenditures for medically unnecessary services and therapies and improve patient health. This session will examine strategies on how a health plan is helping to combat the opioid epidemic.

11:45am – 12:30pm

Increasing Primary Care Utilization of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Opioid Use Disorder

With increasing prevalence of opioid use disorders (OUDs) there is an urgent need for OUD trained front line primary care providers (PCPs) who can help improve patient adherence to addiction treatment. Unfortunately, most physicians have had limited training for treating patients with addiction, leaving clinicians under prepared. This session will explore primary care-based models for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

12:30pm

Conference Concludes

12:45pm – 2:45pm

Workshop: Integrating Virtual Resources for Opioid Use Disorder into a Behavioral Health Network to Improve Patient Access to Care

As the prevalence of virtual strategies continues to grow in healthcare, providers and payers are increasingly entering into partnerships to offer access to digital healthcare services. This session will explore a telehealth model to OUD treatment. We’ll also discuss the impact of the Drug Enforcement Administration's new proposed telemedicine restrictions on vulnerable populations in America.