CDC Awards States $28.6 Million Toward Better Opioid Tracking

The funding will bolster technologies and data to better track and understand prescription drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded states $28.6 million to help states scale up prescription drug monitoring programs and allow them to better track prescriptions and prevent overdoses.

“One piece of HHS’s five-point strategy for combating the opioid crisis is improving our understanding of the epidemic through better public health data,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in a press release. “The expansion of these CDC programs, made possible by legislation President Trump signed earlier this year, is an important piece of our commitment to helping states combat the scourge of opioid addiction and overdose.”

The funding, awarded in the fiscal year 2017 Omnibus Appropriations bill, will go toward three separate programs in 44 states and the District of Columbia: the Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States (PfS) program, the Data-Driven Prevention Initiative (DDPI) and the Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance (ESOOS).

“Drug overdoses have dramatically increased over the last two decades in America,” said CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald in the release. “This additional CDC funding to states, who are on the frontlines of the opioid overdose epidemic, is critical to help them scale up prevention efforts to fight this crisis and save lives.”