Leveraging Opioid Settlements to Support Sustainable Community-Based Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Infrastructure

Project Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the opioid and substance use disorder crisis, leading to the highest number of drug-related overdoses on record. Today’s substance use disorder (SUD) treatment system is falling short, with services being delivered through fragmented providers often lacking coordination or integrated structures to promote whole-person care. Billions of opioid settlement funding is beginning to flow toward decision-makers, especially at the county and municipal level; however, there are limited resources dedicated toward providing officials with actionable tools to organize and sustain key investments over the long term. There is a unique opportunity to support community leaders to develop, scale, and support local infrastructure that is attuned to the chronic nature of addiction and fill existing gaps in care.

The Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, with Third Horizon Strategies as a partner, has launched a project to support community leaders and to develop and disseminate resources and tools to guide state, county, and municipal investments of opioid settlement resources for their communities. The project will convene experts, conduct stakeholder interviews, and analyze qualitative and quantitative data to develop best practices for investments in sustainable, recovery oriented infrastructure.

Funder

This two-year project (July 2022 - June 2024) is supported by The Elevance Health Foundation.

Opioid Abatement and Investment Tool

The opioid abatement needs and investment tool is an interactive data tool designed to assist local, municipal and state level leaders working to address the opioid epidemic in their communities

Launch the Data Tool

Project Activities

News and Press Releases: May 23, 2023: Press Release: New Tool Aims to Help Local Leaders Curb Opioid Crisis at Community Level

August 31, 2022: Press Release: New Tools and Resources Aim to Help Guide Local, County, and State Policymakers Make Community Investments of Opioid Settlement Funds

Opioid Abatement Needs and Investment Tool: With support from the Elevance Health Foundation, Duke-Margolis and Third Horizon Strategies (THS) developed the opioid abatement needs and investment tool. The opioid abatement needs and investment tool is an interactive data tool designed to assist local, municipal and state level leaders working to address the opioid epidemic in their communities. The tool, which has been developed based on feedback from opioid experts, policymakers, and settlement fund advocates, provides geographic-specific information of the potential need for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment and recovery services by county and the locality’s capacity to meet that demand.

Click here to launch the interactive data tool.

Virtual Roundtable on Opioid Settlement Funding: Duke-Margolis hosted a virtual roundtable entitled “Investing in Sustainable Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Infrastructure in the Transition to Value-Based Payment” held on February 24th, 2023 from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM ET. During this roundtable discussion, opioid experts, policymakers, health plans and health systems leaders, and settlement fund advocates provided feedback on the opioid abatement needs and investment tool, identified strategic priorities of settlement dollars relative to existing financing mechanisms, and explored opportunities to support these strategic priorities through value-based payment models.

View the Roundtable Agenda

View the Roundtable Slide Presentation

Community Guide for Sustainable Opioid Settlement Fund Investments: Building on the interactive data tool, Duke-Margolis’s “Pathways to Progress: A Community Guide for Sustainable Opioid Settlement Fund Investments” provides state and local leaders with a structured approach to effectively and equitably allocate opioid settlement funds effectively based on their the existing resources and capacity available to address these needs. Specifically, the guide proposes three key strategies: (1) assess community needs and resources, (2) collaborate with partners for maximum impact, and (3) plan a sustainable approach by integrating settlement funds with existing resources. Throughout each of these, the guide provides practical recommendations and highlight best practices to address the most pressing community needs.

Click here to launch Community Guide
Click here to launch Technical Appendix of Community Guide

Measurement Toolkit

Duke-Margolis’s “Opioid Measurement Toolkit: Leveraging Aligned Data and Measures to Sustain Opioid Settlement Fund Investments” outlines a practical approach that state and local organizations receiving opioid settlement funds can use to make the case to health care payers for integrating settlement-funded interventions into accountable payment and whole-person care model structures. In particular, this toolkit:

Describes the health care data that can demonstrate the effectiveness of opioid settlement-funded initiatives and provide examples of strategies states and localities can use to access health care data;
Describes common measures used by health care payers for SUD that settlement fund stakeholders should seek to align on; and
Provides an approach for selecting health care measures that could be used to demonstrate the impact of opioid settlement fund interventions to health care payers.

Click here to launch the Measurement Toolkit

External Collaborators

Third Horizon Strategies Project Team:

SUD/Opioid Subject Matter Expertise

Greg Williams, President
Tym Rourke, Senior Director
Ashley DeGarmo, Vice President of Client Services
Moses Gur, Manager

Data Design and Analytics

Alex Hryhorczuk, Director of Data Services and Analytics
Chris Hart, Chief Data Analytics Officer

For more about Third Horizon Strategies please visit their website.