Treatment in the National Drug Control Strategy
Action Items
The National Drug Control Strategy contains nine action items related to early intervention, organized under two principles:
Catching Substance Use Disorders Early Saves Lives and Money
- Expand and evaluate screening for substance abuse in all health care settings
- Increase adoption and reimbursement of Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) codes
- Enhance health care providers‘ skills in Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment
- Curbing pharmaceutical abuse
- Educate physicians about opiate painkiller prescribing
- Expand Prescription Drug Monitoring programs and promote links among state systems and to electronic health records
- Increase prescription return/take-back and disposal programs
- Assist states in reducing doctor shopping and pill mills
- Drive illegal Internet pharmacies out of business
- Crack down on rogue pain clinics that do not follow appropriate prescription practices
Curbing Pharmaceutical Abuse
- Educate physicians about opiate painkiller prescribing
- Expand Prescription Drug Monitoring programs and promote links among state systems and to electronic health records
- Increase prescription return/take-back and disposal programs
- Assist states in reducing doctor shopping and pill mills
- Drive illegal Internet pharmacies out of business
- Crack down on rogue pain clinics that do not follow appropriate prescription practices
Overarching prinicples
The National Drug Control Strategy also contains 10 action items related to treatment, organized under three overarching principles:
Addiction Treatment Must Be an Integrated, Accessible Part of Mainstream Health Care
- Expand Addiction Specialty Services in Community Health Centers
- Increase Addiction Treatment Services within the Indian Health Service
- Expand the Innovations of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Substance Use
- Disorder Treatment Approach to Other Federal Healthcare Systems
- Enhance Public and Private Insurance Coverage of Addiction Treatment
- Inform Public Health Systems on Implementation of Needle Exchange
Addicted Patients and Their Families Must Receive High-Quality Care
- Support the Development of New Medications for Addiction
- Develop a Pay-for-Performance Mechanism to Promote the Quality of Publically Funded Substance Abuse Treatment
- Promulgate the National Quality Forum Standards for Addiction Treatment
- Equip Healthcare Providers and First Responders to Recognize and Manage Overdoses
- Seek, Test, and Treat HIV in the Criminal Justice System
