Indianz.Com > News > Tribes eligible for opioid overdose emergency treatment medication as part of settlement
IHS HOPE (Heroin Opioids and Pain Efforts) Committee: Naloxone Training
Tribes eligible for opioid overdose emergency treatment medication as part of settlement
Monday, October 9, 2023
Indianz.Com

UPDATE:
The tribal participation form must be submitted online, the National Indian Health Board said in an update on October 11, 2023. Tribes must create an account on the Tribal Opioid Settlements Website to access and complete the “Naloxone Interest Form” to receive their shares of the overdose treatment medication.

Please refer to the NIHB update for corrected instructions on submitting the form.

Tribes have until October 15 to secure free opioid overdose emergency treatment medication for their communities.

The generic Naloxone is being provided as part of a tribal opioid settlement. Tribes are eligible to receive free boxes of the lifesaving medication every year for 10 years.

But in order to receive their shares, tribes must submit a participation form by email, fax or mail. Boxes of Naloxone can then be shipped to the tribe’s pharmacy, the Indian Health Service or another designated recipient.

“It is important to note that, while the Naloxone is free, the interest form must be filled out by the deadline for Tribes to receive their units,” the National Indian Health Board said in an update on Monday. “If a Tribe does not fill out the interest form, their shares will be distributed to other interested Tribes.”

Comagine Health Awarded the American Indian/Alaska Native Health Care Quality Initiative: How to Use Naloxone

The number of units of Naloxone each tribe will receive has already been determined by an allocation formula. According to the NIHB, each unit contains 12 boxes, and each box contains two doses of the opioid overdose emergency treatment medication.

The allocation list has been published online, in spreadsheet format [XLSX], at tribalopioidsettlements.com. A copy of the document [PDF] shows that 245 tribes — or nearly 43 percent of the 574 federally recognized Indian nations — will receive one unit, meaning 12 boxes of the Naloxone doses.

The participation form can be found in the “Documents” section of tribalopioidsettlements.com. It is the PDF labeled “Teva/Allergan Participation Form.”

For those tribes that wish to submit a participation form online, registration is required at a separate site called MDL Centrality, which is described as the “industry leading mass tort litigation management platform.” The tribal opioid settlement is on the portal.

According to Special Master David R. Cohen, the Tribal Allocation Appointee for the tribal opioid settlement, the Teva pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay about $119 million to all tribes, whether or not they participated in the litigation. The money is being distributed over 13 years, based on an allocation formula.

Additionally, Teva agreed to provide the free Naloxone doses for 10 years, the inter-tribal allocation memo authored by Cohen states. The memo is dated September 19.

Allergan is also part of the tribal opioid settlement. The company, whose generic pharmacy business was acquired by Teva, agreed to pay tribes nearly $71 million over six years.

Department of Health and Human Services: How to Save a life: A Live Naloxone Demonstration

Note: Thumbnail photo of sticker showing the availability of Naloxone at the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., by Amy Rossetti / HHS
Search
Filed Under
Tags
More Headlines
The Conversation: Thanksgiving stories ignore history of colonization on Native lands
Oklahoma Voice: Tribal leaders left out of Republican governor’s event
Native America Calling: The 2023 Indigenous MacArthur Fellows
San Manuel Band donates $1 million to non-profits on Giving Tuesday
Montana Free Press: County withdraws from tribal law enforcement agreement
Cronkite News: Native youth come together for annual White House Forum
Native America Calling: Igloos and traditional winter homes
NAFOA: 5 Things You Need to Know this Week
OJ and Barb Semans: Indigenous people of this country understand suffering
Tom Cole: Promoting tribal sovereignty and self-determination in Congress
Native America Calling: Native in the Spotlight with Tescha Hawley
VIDEO: Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren at National Congress of American Indians
Native America Calling: Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs
Native America Calling: The disparities facing South Dakota’s Native foster children
Native America Calling: The trouble finding safe drinking water
More Headlines