Transcripts For CSPAN2 Surgeon General Jerome Adams Testifie

Meeting i have to attend to make a quorum down the hall here. So im going to to start out. I know you want to introduce one person. Are you under a time constraint . Because if you are, ill give you the courtesy of going ahead. Mr. Chairman, i can wait until the regular okay. So i welcome our panelists today to our hearing on the oneyear anniversary of the support act. This landmark statute, which many of us had a hand in developing, responded to the Opioid Epidemic on multiple fronts. That crisis affected every corner of our nation with approximately 130 americans dying from an overdose every single day. Weve devoted a lot of federal resources to tackling the crisis, and i look forward to hearing from the Surgeon General on this, of this administrations efforts to implement the support act. Now its on its oneyear anniversary. I also commend dr. Adams for launching his own unique initiatives to help raise Public Awareness about the risk of the opioid misuse. Challenges remain, however, because roughly 20 million Americans Still struggle with substance disorder, addiction to other drugs including meth and heroin pose an equal or even greater challenge to some communities. And this is especially true in our rural areas of america. Another issue is that few battling addiction actually seek or receive treatment. Another issue is that even those who do seek help lack the expertise to distinguish the good treatment providers from the bad, and solving this issue which is the second focus of our hearing is easier said than done. The treatment sector includes not just extremely good and extremely bad actors, but those in between. Some, for example, havent updated their methods to incorporate the latest research about what works best for recovering people. Also state requirements for addiction counselors and recovery homes vary. Example, some states require licensing of recovering home operators while others might only use voluntary certification. That is why we have invited two government watchdog agencies and an Addiction Treatment advocate to our committee to share expertise. We welcome back dr. Mccauley of the gao who testified before this Committee Last year. Weve all seen the media reports about socalled sober homes in florida, pennsylvania, massachusetts and a few other states that exploited recovering addicts with private insurance benefits. We look forward to hearing from her on that subject of their work there. I also extend a warm welcome to Gary Cantrell who heads the inspector generals investigative team. His investigators worked on a recent high profile case involving treatment scams in ohio. That investigation in partnership with fb, and i Law Enforcement generally fbi and Law Enforcement generally led to indictment of six people this year. All sex pleaded guilty to medicaid all six pleaded guilty to medicaid fraud. Some havesi called for developmt of more uniform, measurable Addiction Treatment standards by which the public could evaluate the effectiveness of Substance Abuse Treatment Programs. Our last witness, gary mendell, has gone a step forward not only identifying eight core standards he believes are key to any successful program, but also launching a quality rating system. This iss uncharted area in the treatment sector, and we look forward to hearing from him the progress thats been made there with his Nonprofit Organization. Were here today because too Many Americans have lost too many loved ones to addiction and overdose deaths. Americas Opioid Crisis has left a trail of broken hearts and homes across our country. Were here to help communities get on a path towards or health and wellness. Areions of americans desperately seeking a path forward. Working together, we can save tax dollars and save lives. Senator wyden. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And, mr. Chairman, i want to thank you because this is an exceptionally important issue, and i think we do need to have our committee tackle it in a bipartisan way. And i also want to thank you for moving this mornings start time to 9 a. M. Because we both know that our members want to attend the Memorial Service to chairman cummings. Todays hearing is going to spotlight the pitfalls americans face when they try to find quality treatment for Substance Use disorder. An american battling this disease is often jostled and pushed around from one end of the Health Care System to other. The last thing you need when youre suffering from this disease is yet more obstacles; ripoff artists, empty promises or just out and out abuse. The last thing you need is that when all you want to do is get better. Too often people travel across the country expecting to aa legitimate Treatment Facility only to find that theyve fallen prey to a scheme, the goal of which is to drain their Bank Accounts and just milkey their insurance for everything its worth. In some instances, unscrupulous operators are working to lure patients by paying for plane tickets and promising free rent. Once the patients arrive, what they end up getting is lousy care or no care at all. And then the fraudsters just go ttout and bill the Insurance Companies for Health Care Services that a may never that may never have been performed. One of the biggest problems involves facilities that allegedly treat Substance Abuse disorders but are actually set up to rip off taxpayers. The fraudsters illegally recruit patients using bribes and then they bilk the taxpayer by billing the patientss health plan for medically unnecessary drug tests. Schemes like this and were very pleased to have this really terrific group of witnesses today, theyre going to outline these schemes in detail. And, of course, these schemes as well cost medicare, medicaid and private insurance hundreds of millionsns of dollars every yea. Just this month six people operating a network of fraudulent Treatment Centers in ohio pled guilty to submitting 130,000 medicaid claims that totaled more than 48 million for medicallyassisted treatment and other services that were never legitimately provided. Part of the reason this type of fraud is so common is because theres no way for a patient or their family to learn about the quality of a Treatment Facility beforeo they end roll. Enroll. So today were going to hear from an organization that is saying, hey, wake up, everybody. This has got to change. Shatter proof is currently developing public databases that, if successful, will allow the public to identify, evaluate andat compare Substance Use Treatment Programs. This kind of data base and transparency is the type of information that American Families deserve to have, and they deserve to have it now because itll be a key tool to find quality treatment and avoid sham operators trying to make a quick buck. One other point that occurred to me as we were preparing for this hearing is particularly important now to set in place the kind of concrete policies to rip off to make sure that these programs are not ripped off and the patients are not a taken advantage of because, when you read the morning newspaper, the fact is that states and communities may now be on the cusp of receiving tens of billions of dollars from the companies that helped seed the epidemic. I can look down the road because ive heard about this from virtually all of my colleagues. So if youre talking about a fund of tens of billions of dollars, a sum of that size is going to be a magnet for the fraudsters and the ripoff artists. This hearing is going to highlight the need to make sure that the rules of the road and vigorous oversight so that those dollars actually go to help patients get proper care, and all that new money doesnt just find its way into the ripoff artists. I thank the witnesses and, mr. Chairman, again, your leadership, were going to work on this in a bipartisan way, and i look forward to hearing from the witnesses and our colleagues. The senator from maryland to introduce the Surgeon General. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank you for giving me this courtesy. Its a real pleasure to welcome all of our witnesses today, but its particularly to welcome the Surgeon General of the United States, dr. Jerome adams. He hails from mechanicsville, maryland, a proud son of maryland, and has had a glowing career. Mr. Chairman, the first winning the prestigious meyerhoff scholarship, bachelors of science and biochemistry and a bachelor ofr arts in psycholog. I say that because we had a little conversation before. The president of umbc calls dr. Adams his most successful failure. Thats because the Scholarship Program is a program that has been extremely successful in africanamericanst obtaining their ph. D. S and going on to extraordinarily successful lives. Well, dr. Adams does not have a ph. D. , but he does have a masters degree and an m. D. Degree and, of course, has had a very, very successful career. I want to congratulate him for his leadership in our country, his service to our nation. He attended Indiana University school of medicine and eli lilly andon company scholar. Before serving as the United States surgeoni general, dr. Adams was appoint as the Indiana State Health commissioner, as the Surgeon General dr. Adams spends his time focusing on combating the Opioid Epidemic. He has been an advocate on behalf of Public Health in our country, and were just very proud of his service, and were proud to have him as, hail from our state of maryland. The three of you, if i just go to the testimony, dont feel bad i dont introduce you [laughter] i talked to all of you about it in my Opening Statement because of the time constraints, i want to start with the Surgeon General. So would you start and then what well do is, is go in the order that youre sitting there at the table, and then well have questions after you all get done. Fantastic. Well, good morning, chairman grassley, my wife lacey says to tell barbara hi, and we cant wait to bring the kids out to farm. I hope she told you about that. Everybody knows about my wife. Does anybody know about me . [laughter] Ranking Member wyden, distinguished members of the committee, if youll allow me just 20 extra seconds, i want to acknowledge the flags flying at halfmast over the capitol and lift up the example and accomplishments of representativell cummings. His life was the very definition of public service, and my condolences go to his family and to all who were blessed the know him. For my testimony today, id like to given by thanking all of you and your colleagues, mr. Chairman, for passing the support act which has enabled hhs l and our country the make progress in its fight against the Opioid Epidemic, and im so pleased to be here today on the oneyear anniversary. Americas overdose and addiction crisis with one of our most daunting and complex Public Health challenges ever. Recognizing its scale and scope, hhs launched thehe fivepoint strategy in 2017, and under that strategy we are achieving better addiction, prevention and Treatment Services, better data, better Pain Management, better targeting of overdose reversing drugsio and better research. Ive been engaged on this problem as an anesthesiologist involved inng acute and chronic Pain Management x as you heard, as head of a state Health Department dealinged with an unprecedented opioidfueled hiv outbreak. But my work is also sr. , very personal. My younger brother phillip struggles with the addiction of disease. His struggle began with untreated depression, leading to selfmedication and opioid misuse. And like many with cooccurring Mental Health and Substance Use disorders, my brother has cycled in and out of incarceration. Hes currently serving a tenyear prison sentence to crimes committed to support addiction. Addiction can happen to anyone, even the brother of the United States Surgeon General. And when stigma keeps people in the shadows, it impedes our collective recovery. To address this Opioid Epidemic, my Office Released a spotlight onnd opioids, a digital postcard which you can find at Surgeon General. Gov and which you have in front of you, senators, and ap advisory on opioid overdose. I want to leave you with five key messages that i detail in these publications. Number one, Early Intervention is critical. They need to be initiated early in life. We cant wait until someones in high school or college before we Start Talking to them about the dangers of opioid misuse. Number two, treatment one integrated musta be integrad into Mainstream Health care. In the course of a year, only one in four people with opioid use disorder receives specialty treatment. Number three, having naloxone can save of a life and serve as a bridge to treatment and recovery, and i hope all of you knowr about this and carry it. I carry it with me everywhere i go. Its literally that easy to save a life. Since my advisory was published, almost three million twodose units have been distributed to communities, but too many still needlessly die. Fourth, comprehensive communitybased support Recovery Services are essential, and i saw this firsthand when second lady pence and i i visited indiana, a unique Pilot Project called pathways to employment in which potential employees who fail drug tests are offered drug coming and then assured jobs. Overdoses. In conclusion, on this administration and through your support, and who strike investment has been made in combating the Opioid Crisis. In 2019, which its not full of awarded over 9 billion to local communities to combat addictions. This includes nearly 1 billion across 3175 projects in 41 states is part of nih is helping to end addiction longterm or heel initiative. It also includes more than 1. 8 billion and cdc funding the state announced lastt month. These funds expand access to treatment and strengthen data and surveillance. Since the start of the administration, loosing the amount of opioids nationally dropem, 31 percent in terms of prescriptions. Missing a number of americans receiving treatment grow. Now nearly 1. 27 million americans are receiving treatment. And number of providers that the data waivers to prescribe nat. The risen 378 percent, and provisional Drug Overdose deaths, have dropped by 5 percent. The first drop in over 20 years. We are making progress. Challenges remain including the resurgence of methamphetamines. The need to increase support for comprehensive Syringe Service programs, and is for the Emergency Department medication facility Treatment Programs with warm handoffs to care. We also must expand the behavioral workforce. We talked about that before the hearing. I promise you, that hhs and my office will to continue our commitment and hard focus on this critical Public Health issues and i thank you for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to questions. If i am again, with all your background in animal science, how did you end up in jail. Is you probably are aware, theres quite a pit of difference between Animal Health and like health and human health. I need it an a explanation proceed please. I am pleased to be here today to discuss recent report on the oversight of recovery homes. Substance abuse and illicit drug use is the persistent problem that is run families and taken lives. The dea reports that in 2011, drug over notions alone have been the leading cause t of deah by injury in the United States outnumbering just by guns, car crashes, suicides, and homicide. Recovery homes and offer safe and supportive housing. Unfortunately that actors have used these homes to take advantage of individuals during the time of need. Today i would like to highlight two key findings from our report. First, geo sound that all five states in our review, i received complaints of potential fraud elated to recovery homes. And for the five, florida massachusetts, ohio, and utah had orman in the process of conducting investigations. For example, officials told jail the fraud is in southeastern for florida. Operators were luring individuals to homes using substantive marketing techniqu techniques. Such is promises of free airfare and brent. Recruiters, then broker t