HHS Secretary Burwell Announces AHRQ Grants To Address Opioid Abuse

In a July 15 speech to the National Governors Association, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced a series of AHRQ grants to support rural primary care practices in delivering medication-assisted treatment for people addicted to opioids and to study how to overcome barriers to increasing access to such treatment. The treatment is an evidence-based therapy for assisting people with opioid addiction and involves using both medications and behavioral support to empower people to manage their addiction. AHRQ is investing approximately $9 million over three years in this initiative, which will help rural primary care practices provide access to treatment to more than 20,000 people with opioid addiction. The initiative supports practices through the use of in-person practice facilitation as well as technologies, including patient-controlled smart phone apps, remote training and use of Project ECHO, a program that augments patient care by linking frontline primary care clinicians in rural communities with specialist care teams at university medical centers. Visit AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research to learn more.