On June 11, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance to state Medicaid directors about how states can harness Medicaid health information technology to combat the opioid crisis. CMS encourages states to pursue strategies such as enhanced prescription drug monitoring programs, drug utilization review programs, and opioid risk assessment tools which can be integrated into electronic health record systems...

On November 1, 2017, the White House released a report drafted by the President’s Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.  The report offers 56 recommendations for action by Congress, federal agencies, state governments, health care provider organizations, and health care payers.

Child welfare agencies in jurisdictions across the country face a growing foster care crisis: decreasing numbers of licensed foster homes can’t support the increasing demand for licensed out of home placement, fueled, in part, by the opioid and prescription drug crisis. What is causing this shift in the demand for traditional licensed foster homes?