RFK Jr. continues Opioid Crisis PHE into its eighth year

RFK Jr. continues Opioid Crisis PHE into its eighth year 
Inside Health Policy; by Dorothy Mills-Gregg; 3/19/25 
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently renewed the department’s longest ongoing public health emergency (PHE) first declared under the first Trump administration: the opioid abuse crisis. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 25.5% decrease in overdose deaths in 2024 compared to the previous year, HHS says the opioid PHE needs to be renewed for another 90 days so federal coordination efforts can continue and key flexibilities for HHS will be preserved.
Editor's note: How recently have you reviewed your Policies & Procedures for destroying drugs in the patient's home, upon death--in accordance with your state laws? For staff education and accountability about medication reconciliation, drug diversion, and disposal? For communicating these with families? For assessing possible drug diversion of opioids, with appropriate follow-up actions? Additionally, numerous hospice bereavement programs have been flooded with grief needs of community bereaved family members from opioid deaths. Click here for the U.S. Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Administration - Diversion Control Division; more focused, scroll down to their "Home Disposal Methods."