Lebanon County to receive another round of opioid settlement funds. How it will be used.
Lebanon County is expected to receive more than $3.6 million from a second wave of opioid settlement funds, which officials want to use to create two new programs to proactively stem the opioid epidemic in the county.
Officials said this funding will be distributed over a 13-year period. The funds are from a second wave of national lawsuit settlements accusing drug manufacturers Teva and Allergan, along with pharmacy chains including CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, of contributing to the opioid addiction epidemic and related overdose deaths.
Lebanon County received its first payment of this second wave funds in 2024, according to the county Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Director James Donmoyer Jr. The last payment will be in 2037.
"We're trying to keep people out of jail and in treatment," Donmoyer said to county commissioners Feb. 19 about the programs funded by opioid settlement funds. "They're in jail, they are not real productive to anyone honestly."
This second wave of funds is in an addition to the more than $4.178 million the county received in 2022 for opioid settlement funding. The first wave was part of a settlement in 2022 with pharma distributors that included Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, along with manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.
The bulk of these new funds will be put towards a medication assistant treatment, also known as MAT, induction program at Lebanon County Correctional Facility costing $150,000 a year. The total cost of the program will be $1.95 million over 13 years.
County commissioners originally approved a MAT maintenance program for the correctional facility in 2022 costing $100,000 a year with the first wave of opioid settlement funds. The total cost of the program will be $1.8 million by 2037, when the first wave of funds also run out.
"Induction simply means someone comes into the prison, they are not on any MAT but they wish to start MAT," Donmoyer said. "So not only are we going to be able to maintain someone on MAT while in the county prison, but we'll also be able to start them while their in the county prison."
Both programs will be facilitated through PrimeCare Medical, which provides comprehensive health care services for the correctional facility.
The Lebanon County Correctional Facility has an average daily population of around 300 inmates. Officials said the facility on average intakes about 120 new inmates a month, 8% to 12% of which require detoxification of opioids and other illegal drugs.
More than 437 patients were seen at the correctional facility for MAT maintenance for 2024, according to Donmoyer.
"We're seeing a lot of people coming into the prison on some kind of MAT want to continue, and if we don't have the programs in place for that to happen, we are going to be liable," he said.
Donmoyer added that organizations filled lawsuits against Alleghany and Delaware counties for not having similar programs.
Officials used the first wave of settlement funds to hire a dedicated adult parole officer to manage opiate addicts at $90,000 a year. Donmoyer said they currently have a caseload of 35 individuals as of January, and 25 are in treatment.
In a 2-to-1 vote Feb. 20, Lebanon County Commissioners approved using the settlement funds for MAT induction program. Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz vote no, requesting the county put facilitating the program out for bid.
County officials also put $25,000 per year of second wave funds towards an opioid use disorder outreach workers program with the Recovery Advocacy Service Empowerment, or RASE, Project. The total cost of the program will be $325,000 over the next 13 years.
Donmoyer said it will be an "on the ground" type of service, acting as a referral per person to get residents' needs addressed, including drug and alcohol services.
"It's basically outreach workers going into our community and addressing this population on a lot of major fronts as far as health, transportation, education, homelessness," Donmoyer said. "They help refer these individuals to the services they need in our community."
The service was originally provided by Alder Health before the COVID pandemic. Donmoyer said RASE would be providing the service one day a week through Lebanon County.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth.
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon County pro-active with new round of opioid settlement funding
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