Americans are seven times more likely to fill a prescription for opioids the week after surgery than Swedes, according to a study published in JAMA Sept. 4.

Physicians were more likely to prescribe opioids later in the day and when appointments were running behind schedule, according to a study published in JAMA cited by STAT.

HHS is giving states more than $1.8 billion in new funding to support programs that address the opioid crisis, the agency announced Sept. 4.

Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare will hold a national "Crush the Crisis" opioid take-back day Sept. 7.

Families across the U.S. are paying thousands of dollars for addicted loved ones to attend largely ineffective drug rehab programs, according to Vox.

Opioids kill 130 Americans per day, and nurses play a critical role in screening and identifying patients with substance use disorders, according to AJC Pulse.

Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine will establish a new Center of Excellence in which psychiatry and radiology researchers will use PET imaging to study neurobiological changes associated with opioid use disorder.

Fatal overdoses involving synthetic opioids have increased sharply since 2013, according to a report from Rand Corp.

A recent blog post by TeamHealth reviews a discussion with David Samuels, MD, on his thoughts from a non-opioid anesthesiologist's perspective. 

The Ohio Development Services Agency announced Aug. 27 the winners of its Opioid Technology Challenge, each of whom will receive a $1 million prize to further develop their proposed projects to address the opioid epidemic.

The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania has created the Opioid Learning Action Network.

Though the U.S. Justice Department has used data analytics to comb through prescription and billing information to detect healthcare fraud for several years, its recent data-driven approach to tackling the opioid crisis may be its most successful yet.

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich and West Virginia University President Gordon Gee have formed a nonprofit to push any national opioid settlement to hospitals instead of state and local governments, according to the Dayton Daily News.

HHS issued a proposal Aug. 22 to loosen privacy rules around the treatment of substance use disorder.

All beneficiaries and providers at risk of opioid misuse can't be identified, rendering a national claims database of Medicaid opioid prescribing inadequate, according to a report from the Office of Inspector General.

Federal authorities are investigating Dallas-based University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center after two nurses died of fentanyl overdoses in restrooms at UT Southwestern's William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Medicaid prescriptions for buprenorphine, a treatment for opioid use disorder, differed significantly by state in 2018, according to a report from the Urban Institute.

Most Americans agree that people with opioid use disorder need both medical and nonmedical resources for treatment. However, many do not know where to find these resources or how much they will cost, according to a new survey from NORC at the University of Chicago.

Endo Pharmaceuticals has agreed to an $11 million settlement to resolve claims that the drugmaker helped fuel the opioid epidemic, according to Bloomberg. The settlement allows Endo to sidestep a potentially damaging opioid trial set to begin in October. 

Post-surgery recovery programs with opioid-sparing and opioid-free protocols are increasingly being leveraged to prevent the risk of opioid addiction and improve pain management for patients.