Educations

ASAM Collaboration with Brandeis and Cigna Tests Addiction Treatment Performance Measures

ASAM is working with Brandeis University to test and validate three performance measures related to addiction treatment using commercial administrative data from the health insurer Cigna. This follows a recent project testing performance measures using data from the Veterans Health Administration.

Educations

ASAM and NNESAM Call for Maine Legislature to Overturn Governor LePage’s Veto and Increase Access to Naloxone

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and the Norther New England Society of Addiction Medicine (NNESAM) are calling for the Maine legislature to overturn Governor LePage’s veto of LD1547.

Educations

Letter of Thanks: Recognition of Addiction Medicine

From the start, this endeavor was about the patients, and their affected family members. It was about building a workforce of trained and certified expert clinicians who would Treat Addiction and Save Lives™. We are today at a point in time, in a process begun by Dr. Ruth Fox and her colleagues in her apartment in New York City over 60 years ago, on the way to a future that we see clearly.

Educations

ASAM Applauds Important Step by Obama Administration and Calls for Increased Congressional Pressure to Expand Treatment Access

ASAM Applauds Important Step by Obama Administration and Calls for Increased Congressional Pressure to Expand Treatment Access

Educations

Summary of Inter-Professional Collaboration

A strong collaboration across different specialties is essential to produce a comprehensive treatment plan. This article highlights key points to consider in supporting inter-professional collaboration.

Educations

Editorial Comment

"Be careful what you ask for." In our discipline's quest for comprehensive guidelines for the management of opioid medications, these have been provided by the CDC in the past week, and are linked below. Depending on formatting, the reader will see over 50 pages, the greater part of which is, appropriately, discussion of the evidence for and against opioid use practices; “appropriately,” given the contentions associated with this topic. Naturally, that sort of reading assignment encourages condensation.

Educations

U.S. Senate Shows Leadership in Bipartisan Response to Opioid Epidemic

The United States Senate almost unanimously passed the first legislation to address addiction and drug use in over a decade.

Educations

ASAM Applauds HHS and CDC for Guidelines on Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for issued new recommendations for prescribing opioid medications for chronic pain, excluding cancer, palliative and end-of-life care.

Educations

One Insurer’s Efforts to Assist in Massachusetts’ Opioid Overdose Crisis

The Payer Relations Committee seeks to build a working relationship with health insurers and other payers across the country. One way that we will be engaging with payers is by featuring in the ASAM Magazine health insurers that are working to increase access to treatment for plan members with addiction. This will be the first in a series of articles that will highlight payers working to improve access to substance use disorder treatment.

Educations

ASAM Endorses ACOG Report on Team-Based Care

ASAM endorsed the recent report from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists entitled Collaboration in Practice: Implementing Team-Based Care. In the words of the report, it "will be most useful for those who are charged with developing new practice models based on the changing demographics of health care practices and financial reimbursement structures."

Educations

Jay Kasner, MD: Devoted Doctor and Mentor

Jay was the stalwart. His patients loved him. All the staff loved him. He was a caring and skilled doctor, always even-tempered and affable, always positive, with a wonderful sense of humor almost as dry as that of his wife of 36 years, Dr Joanne Carpentier-Kasner, DVM.

Educations

ACTION ALERT - Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA)

This Monday at 5:30 PM (EST), the U.S. Senate will debate and vote on S. 524, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA).

Educations

ASAM Applauds Appointment of Kimberly Johnson, PhD to Serve as Director of Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) within SAMHSA

ASAM applauds last weeks announcement that Kimberly Johnson, PhD has been appointed to serve as the next Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Educations

Addiction Medicine Physician Participation in and Leadership of Multidisciplinary Care Teams

Educations

Play a Role in the Future of Addiction Medicine

The World Health Organization is requesting input from physicians, nurses, insurers, public health professionals and policy-makers on the ICD-11, the next version of the disease classification system used around the world. Of note to addiction clinicians are some reclassifications from the ICD-10 related to the relationships between impulse control disorders and behavioral addiction, such as pathological gambling, and substance use disorder.

Educations

International Statement Recommending Against the Use of Terminology That Can Stigmatize People

An editorial by <em>Journal of Addiction Medicine</em> Senior Editor, Dr. Richard Saitz, MPH, FACP, DFASAM, encourages the use of precise and non-stigmatizing terminology.

Educations

Ask the PCSS Expert: Does Evidence Show Naltrexone Reduces Cravings?

A physician wrote the PCSS mentor network seeking advice on naltrexone. They asked three questions.

Educations

Patients with Addiction Need Treatment - Not Stigma

We must change the conversation about what it means to have a substance use disorder, and we also must increase access to evidence-based treatments.

Educations

SAMHSA Provides Guidance on 42 CFR Part 2

Over the summer, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) hosted a webinar series on health information technology (IT). The purpose of these webinars was for providers, consumers, states, organizations and vendors to be educated on the regulations and usage of health IT and to explore the innovative ways this technology is being used to improve the quality of care delivery, support patient engagement and self-management, improve the efficiency of the workforce and expand access to care.

Educations

ASAM Leadership Series: Dr. Saitz, MPH, FACP, DFASAM

Dr. Saitz, MPH, FACP, DFASAM, is, by all account, a funny and charming man who is also an accomplished researcher and expert in (among areas) SBIRT.