As communities throughout Ohio try get control of a raging heroin epidemic, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown announced legislation, Monday morning, he said would expand addiction services.
“They want to get better and they can’t in many cases get treatment," U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown said.
Brown said space is limited at treatment facilities and community health centers across the state. He said doctors are restricted to how many addicts they can treat at once.
“The cap is ironic given that doctors have no limit on the number of patients to whom they can prescribe opioids," Brown said. "So doctors can provide opioids to hundreds of patients, but the number of patients a doctor can treat is capped at 100.”
Brown’s bill would expand the number of opioid patients a doctor could treat. But Brown added more state and federal money is needed to provide local addiction services.
“If the state’s too cheap, or congress is too cheap to provide dollars, this will cost us all more in the end," he said. "It will mean more people addicted, more people dying, more families disrupted, and ultimately, way more cost to the health care system.”
The bill also would offer workforce development for health care professionals to diagnose and treat addiction.