House, Senate committees hold hearings on opioid epidemic

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee today held a hearing focused on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ efforts to use data to identify Medicare Part D beneficiaries who are at risk of misusing opioids. The hearing also examined the tools CMS has available to limit overprescribing. Witnesses were Kimberly Brandt, CMS principal deputy administrator for operations; Gary Cantrell, deputy inspector general for investigations at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General; and Elizabeth Curda, director of health care at the Government Accountability Office. In addition, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs today examined Medicaid and the opioid epidemic. Witnesses were Sam Adolphsen, senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability; Otto Schalk, prosecuting attorney for Harrison County, IN; Emmanuel Tyndall, inspector general of Tennessee; David Hyman, M.D., of the Georgetown University Law Center; and Andrew Kolodny, M.D., co-director of opioid policy research at Brandeis University.