FORE Grants Target Telehealth, mHealth Use in Addiction Treatment

Four healthcare providers and a pair of research institutions are getting more than $330,000 in grants to expand the use and study of telehealth and mHealth in treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD).

The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE), a New York-based foundation, announced on Thursday the grants to the Ballad Health system, RAND Corporation, Addiction Policy Forum, Illinois Association for Free and Charitable Clinics, Rutgers University and the University of North Carolina’s Health Sciences at Mountain Area Health Center. The funds are part of FORE’s COVID-19 National Emergency Response program to expand support for recovery programs and support policy research on such issues as relaxed telehealth regulations.

"COVID-19 has led to implementing a number of virtual innovations in evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder,” FORE President Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, said in a press release. “Now we must determine which of those changes are working, and for whom, so we can develop long-term policies that sustain access to better patient-centered care."

"As we evaluate and test new strategies to effectively treat and reduce opioid use disorder, we do so with the added mandate to address and remove racial and ethnic barriers magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events, she added."

Ballad Health, a 21-hospital system serving parts of Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, and the Maryland-based Addiction Policy Forum are receiving funding to support recovery support services during the COVID-19 crisis. Ballad will use the money to expand its PEERhelp Warmline to 24/7 coverage and add more virtual care meetings, including those helping incarcerated individuals. ADF will use its money to expand digital health access to recovery services in criminal justice settings.

 RAND and New Jersey-based Rutgers are receiving money to continue their analysis of the impact of emergency policy changes – including moves to boost telehealth coverage and expansion – on long-term care strategies. RAND will focus on a national study of telehealth programs ramped up to address OUD treatment during the pandemic, while Rutgers will focus its research on how emergency Medicaid waivers in New Jersey affect access to those programs.

The Illinois Association of Free and Charitable Clinics and UNC’s Mountain Area Health Education Center are getting grants to strengthen their current treatment programs. IAFCC will use the money to expand telehealth opportunities at free clinics involved in developing OUD programs, while UNC-MAHEC will use the money to enhance support for community health centers throughout the state.

"Before the onset of COVID-19, opioid use disorder was at unprecedented levels, with an estimated 130 Americans dying every day from an opioid overdose,” said Andrea Barthwell, MD, who chairs FORE's board of directors, said in the press release. “Now we're looking at one crisis on top of another since evidence suggests that many of the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic are already leading to a rise in opioid overdoses and deaths."

"These grants to leading organizations on the frontlines of the opioid crisis are aimed at breaking through many of the COVID-19 imposed barriers by providing solutions that make it easier to connect those seeking care to evidence-based recovery services," she added.