Commentary: Naloxone co-prescribing legislation will help save lives

Commentary: Naloxone co-prescribing legislation will help save lives

June 22, 2021
Joshua Lynch

There is no single solution to address the opioid crisis, but one thing is clear: Naloxone saves lives in emergencies. Expanding access to opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone is one critical component of a broader strategy needed to combat increasing accidental overdoses in New York, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has it on his desk to do so.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported nearly 90,000 drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending in October 2020 — the largest number for a 12-month period ever recorded. In New York alone, at least 20 counties and New York City have recorded overdose increases since the pandemic began, including my home county of Erie.

As an emergency physician and founder of New York MATTERS, I have long understood the critical need to create more effective linkages between hospitals and quality care, treatment, and existing resources for at-risk patients. The New York MATTERS program works to deliver efficient buprenorphine training to emergency physicians and provide take-home naloxone kits to at-risk patients and family members. Only by establishing such linkages to care can we create safer spaces for patient education and prepare individuals to manage their risk of accidental overdose. And it starts with naloxone.

Naloxone is an FDA-approved medication used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. But it can only be effective if it is available and present in situations that call for it. Our elected officials can take active steps to ensure that health care professionals meet patients where they are to educate them about their risk for accidental overdose and equip them with this tool.

The Legislature recognized this when it passed a bill (A.336/S.2966) that requires opioid prescribers to co-prescribe naloxone to certain at-risk patients, including those with opioid prescriptions of 50 morphine milligram equivalents (MME) or higher, a history of a substance abuse disorder, or concurrent use of benzodiazepines or non-benzodiazepine sedative hypnotics. It’s now on Cuomo to help protect more individuals from accidental overdose with the stroke of a pen.