News & Updates — FORE Announcements

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Opioid Crisis Task Force released its recommendations for strengthening the federal response to the opioid crisis, which has claimed more than 550,000 lives over the last 20 years. Among many recommendations, the new report, Combating the Opioid Crisis: ‘Smarter Spending’ to Enhance the Federal Response, calls for increased Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, the enforcement of parity rules that require insurers to cover SUD treatment on par with physical health conditions, and enhancements to data collection to assess the public health need and guide the response.

 
The task force, which was convened in April 2021 with funding from FORE, includes former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, M.D.; former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear; former California Rep. Mary Bono; Richard G. Frank, Ph.D., the Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution; former American Medical Association President Patrice Harris, M.D.; and former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and former Florida Rep. Donna Shalala, Ph.D.

On May 2, from 1-2 pm E.S.T., members of the task force will join Karen Scott, M.D., M.P.H., FORE’s president, in discussing the recommendations for optimizing federal spending and improving the overall response. Registration for the event is free.