I have a number of questions about the Governor's executive order for opioid reporting.
Where is Ducey getting the funds to pay for this? Who is going to pay for the extra time and paperwork required of medical providers to comply with the order? What are they doing to ensure this doesn't violate a person's rights under HIPAA? Do providers have to report on NAS in infants and mothers on methadone who are already in treatment for opioid addiction? What's the plan when the order expires in 60 days? How will the information collected be used and by whom? Does the governor also plan to allocate money for more treatment facilities?
I do not see any of these questions addressed on this website. Thank you.
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Thank you for your question. Arizona Department of Health Services staff are diligently working to address the calls to action within Governor Ducey’s emergency declaration and are doing so under existing funding streams, including state funds and federal grant dollars. Opioid-related required reporting for healthcare providers falls in line with existing required reporting for communicable diseases, utilizing the same systems. These systems are HIPAA compliant. Reporting requirements are outlined on our website at www.azhealth.gov/opiod under the Reporting button. In order to better understand the burden of the opioid epidemic in Arizona and improve targeting of interventions, healthcare providers and others groups are required to report suspected opioid overdoses, suspected deaths due to opioids, and neonatal abstinence syndrome, regardless of the treatment status of the individual. Information collected from required reporting will be posted in aggregate on our website on a weekly basis beginning the week of June 26, 2017. Other state agencies are also working collaboratively to address this epidemic, including AHCCCS, which currently has a grant to expand access to treatment in the state.