Almost two years after New York City opened the nation’s first overdose prevention centers (OPCs), the two facilities—which allow people to use illicit drugs under medical and/or peer supervision—remain the only locally sanctioned sites in operation in the US.

That could soon change: Rhode Island is set to open its own OPC in early 2024. And the Biden administration is reportedly working on guidance that could lead to more facilities opening across the country.

But when those guidelines could come—and whether additional states or cities would follow suit—is unclear. OPCs, which are also known as supervised consumption sites, remain a thorny issue for politicians, even as early data touts their success in reversing overdoses.

Healthcare Brew broke down where things stand on OPCs.

Federal rules. Supervised consumption facilities are prohibited under the federal 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act—sometimes known as the “crack house” statute. But the Department of Justice (DOJ) is expected to release guidance that could pave the way for OPCs to open across the US.

Such a move would mark a stark reversal of how OPCs were previously treated. The Trump administration’s DOJ filed a civil lawsuit in 2019 to declare Safehouse, a proposed Philadelphia overdose prevention site, illegal and bar it from opening. The courts agreed with the government, ruling in January 2021 that it’s a federal crime to open an OPC for illegal drug use.

Later, the DOJ—now under President Joe Biden’s control—began settlement talks with Safehouse. And in January 2023, Safehouse officials announced that they had “agreed to meet with a federal magistrate to expedite resolution and begin saving lives.”

The National Institutes of Health, meanwhile, announced plans in May to study OPCs.

Keep reading here.—SY

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At the end of 2022, Healthcare Brew asked healthcare industry leaders what their goals were for 2023. As we approached the middle of the year (which was yesterday, if you’re keeping track), we followed up with those same leaders to see if they’ve made progress on those goals.

Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), told us last December that his goal for the year was to expand the health system’s ability to house patients experiencing homelessness.

H+H has been “extraordinarily busy over the last six months to develop new units of supportive housing on our land and increase access to one-on-one support for our patients to find and apply for permanent housing,” Leora Jontef, the health system’s assistant VP of housing and real estate, said in an April update.

The municipal system launched a Housing for Health initiative in November 2022. In March 2023, H+H said that about 600 patients would annually receive one-on-one support to apply for housing, doubling the number of patients who had previously accessed housing navigation services with the health system, Jontef told Healthcare Brew.

H+H also plans to open a new housing project on its Woodhull campus with affordable and supportive housing by 2025, Jontef said.

Karen Staniforth, chief pharmacy officer at Rite Aid, told Healthcare Brew last December that her goal for 2023 was to continue investing in technology that aids pharmacists.

So far this year, Staniforth said Rite Aid has “developed and deployed a portfolio of proprietary tools and programs proven to improve adherence and immunization rates.”

“We’re continuing to explore deeper opportunities for pharmacists, whether it’s customer-facing, clinical, support [from] a centralized support team, or remote work,” Staniforth said.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: About 2.4 million healthcare workers were unionized in 2021, and that figure is growing. (Healthcare Brew)

Quote: “We’ve normalized the abnormal. It is not normal in most countries for medical care to be something that you fear because it will put you in debt from which it’s impossible to recover.”—Sachin Jain, CEO of not-for-profit insurer SCAN Health Group, on efforts to pay off medical debt from the West Coast (Yahoo Finance)

Read: ChatGPT is helping some doctors with their bedside manner. (the New York Times)