Nearly two years after New York City announced its first tranche of opioid settlement funds, city health officials quietly released a report this week to outline its spending.
But the report, published by the city Health Department on Sunday, provides sparse detail on where the $90 million in settlement funds from lawsuits filed against major opioid manufacturers and distributors is going.
So far the city has spent $30 million on syringe exchange programs, emergency department response teams, mobile outreach vans and other efforts, according to the report. The city has funded OnPoint NYC, which operates supervised injection sites in Upper Manhattan, to hand out naloxone, prescribe medication for opioid use disorder and expand syringe exchange programs. Those services reached more than 5,000 New Yorkers in the 2023 fiscal year, as well as 5,000 additional people in the first half of fiscal year 2024, the report says.
Councilwoman Linda Lee, chair of the City Council’s committee on mental health, said that transparency into settlement fund spending is necessary to monitor the success of addiction treatment and harm reduction programs, as well as evaluate whether the money is being allocated appropriately to high-need communities.
“I have no sense of that from this report,” Lee told Crain’s.
The funds have supported new teams within New York City Health + Hospitals’ emergency departments that engage with people who have substance use disorders, providing peer support, counseling and medication. Those teams also reached roughly 5,000 New Yorkers in the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, according to the report.
Rachel Vick, a spokeswoman for the Health Department, said the disbursement of spending and outcomes are monitored by the Health Department, but did not provide a breakdown of how much money has been spent on each program in response to an inquiry from Crain’s.
The city has allocated $30 million annually to settlement initiatives through 2027, according to the report. Roughly $15 million a year goes to the Health Department and the city’s public hospital system, as well as $800,000 a year to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Vick said.
The city’s spending of opioid settlement funds, designed to mitigate a crisis that took the lives of more than 3,000 residents in 2022, has been subject to little oversight. While the state’s pot of money is subject to recommendations from a government-appointed advisory panel, New York City does not have a designated task force to oversee its spending strategy.
Vick said that the city has and continues to engage providers and community members in guiding how funds are spent.
The report comes days after the City Council pressed the Health Department for data related to the opioid settlement funds. The Council passed a law in December 2022 that required the city to report its spending of opioid settlement funds, as well as how that spending impacted health outcomes. Lee, who sponsored the legislation, demanded health officials share this data in a budget hearing last Thursday.
Lee said she appreciates the city’s overview of programs and initiatives to mitigate the overdose crisis. But she said there’s information missing on how much has been spent on staff, which neighborhoods have seen investments and whether or not these programs have reduced overdoses or improved health.
“When we ask for transparency, it’s because we just want to make sure that the dollars are going where they’re supposed to be going,” Lee said.
Allegra Schorr, president of the Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates, said that New York City’s spending of the settlement funds aligns with the recommendations of the state’s advisory board – which the city is not required to abide by.
“While we support the city’s proposals, we ask that the allocations for the funds be included in the report for greater transparency,” she said.
Amanda D'Ambrosio , 2024-03-29 10:33:04
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