A $26 billion opioid settlement was reached with three opioid distributors: Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen along with opioid manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, for allegedly “fueling” the nation’s opioid crisis; and Wisconsin’s getting $400 million of it.
But the question that still lingers is: Where’s the money going?
Wisconsin’s Department of Health listed its five key focuses with the funds. They plan on addressing root causes, proactively preventing opioid abuse, enhancing harm reduction, expanding treatment options and support recovery. But what does that mean?
According to WisHope’s Executive Director Peter Brunzelle, a needs assessment has to be performed in order to efficiently allocate the new funds.
“Just like any industry at large,” said Brunzelle, “you want to do a needs assessment on each area and do it based off of kind of a census basis need to determine what really is needed.”
Brunzelle said people “think they know” what’s available and needed but have yet to do the research on it.
“They don’t even realize what’s available quite often.” said Brunzelle. “You know, people think they do but they didn’t do the research enough. They didn’t look and see the real hard data of like ‘oh this is how many beds we do have for this type of service; this is how prevention’s happening; harm reduction, this is what’s happening in the community. They’re not looking at the whole picture and assessing the need from there.”
Wisconsin expects to receive its first payment this year and they’ll continue to come for the next 18 years.