Congratulations Walter Ginter

National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery

Press Release

Contacts Persons: 

Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director, edirector@methadone.org

Carmen Pearman-Arlt, President, carlt@porterstarke.org

Phone/Fax: 1.212.595.NAMA  (1-212-595-62620

For Release

July 2, 2018

 Recipient of the 2018 Lisa Mojer-Torres Award

America Honors Recovery is Faces & Voices of Recovery's annual awards gala which celebrates and honors the most influential recovery community leaders and organizations. The event salutes the legacies of three dynamic recovery trailblazers who dedicated their lives to removing barriers for individuals and families affected by addiction.

THE LISA MOJER-TORRES AWARD

The Lisa Mojer-Torres Award honors a tenacious fighter who believed in the dignity and rights of every person. Her inquiring and challenging mind offered new insights and by example, she encouraged us to stand up and speak out on behalf of all pathways to recovery, including the use of medications.

Lisa sat on the Board of Directors of NAMA Recovery twice. In the mid-1990s as a Vice President she helped to reorganize NAMA Recovery. She left the board to work on the founding of Faces & Voices of Recovery (FAVOR) and as the first Chair of the organization. Her determination and advocacy contributed to a significant shift in the recovery community and the need to end discriminatory policies directed at MAT patients.

After leaving FAVOR she joined the NAMA Recovery Board of Directors a second time to serve as legal liaison.

Lisa fit her passion and advocacy into an already busy life - giving of her time and talent while juggling work and family life with her husband Roland and sons Matthew and Liam. She brought her story of recovery with compassion to diverse communities and tailored her communications to fit each audience – be it service providers, researchers, policymakers, family members or people seeking or in long-term recovery. She was a recovery communicator – speaking clearly, poignantly and passionately about her own experiences. She built lasting bridges across the recovery community, “the more we learn about addiction, the advances of science, the full range of treatments and the variety of paths leading to recovery, the better prepared we will be to choose our own path.”

Lisa was everywhere. She was an attorney who specialized in civil rights law for persons in recovery. Her advocacy activities spanned television and press interviews, Congressional testimony, policy advisor (from the Institute of Medicine to CSAT’s National Advisory Committee), one-on-one lobbying, author, and relentless educator and courageous defender. Lisa died in 2011 after a prolonged struggle with ovarian cancer. 

We salute her tireless, passionate, committed advocacy for recovery.

Walter Ginter

Walter Ginter is a founding Project Director of the Medication Assisted Recovery Support (M.A.R.S.) Project. The M.A.R.S. Project is designed to provide peer recovery support to persons whose recovery from opiate addiction is assisted by medication. It is collaboration with the Division of Substance Abuse, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University. Beyond MARS Training, Mr. Ginter has worked for the last five years training OTP's, RCO's, and government organizations on how to implement peer recovery support services for the medication assisted recovery community.

Mr. Ginter, a former Board Director for Faces and Voices of Recovery (FaVoR), was a Member of the National Policy and Planning Committee, and the Accreditation sub-committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Medication Assisted (NAMA) Recov-ery the premier advocacy and recovery for MAT patients.

Mr. Ginter was a planning partner for National Recovery Month. Additionally, he has served on several committees of the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) as a voice for MAT patients. He has been a member of more than thirty federal expert panels and advisory groups.

Mr. Ginter received the Richard Lane/Robert Holden Patient Advocacy Award "in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to MAT patients and the field of opiate addiction treatment" at the 2009 American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) National Conference in NYC, the Vernon Johnson America Honors Recovery Award from FAVOR and the Robert Savage Advocate of the Year from the Connecticut Committee for Addiction Recovery Award (CCAR).

Congratulations, Walter, for your commitment and dedication

to making MAT treatment better for patients.

We at NAMA Recovery are so proud.

NAMA RECOVERY STATEMENT TO OPPOSE THE OVERDOSE PREVENTION AND PATIENT SAFETY ACT (HR 3545)

National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery

Press Release

Contacts Persons: 

Joycelyn Woods, Executive Director, edirector@methadone.org

Carmen Pearman-Arlt, President, carlt@porterstarke.org

Phone/Fax: 1.212.595.NAMA  (1-212-595-62620

For Release

May 14, 2018

The National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery (NAMA Recovery) has been the premier voice for persons receiving Medication Assisted Treatment since 1988. MAT has been disparaged as a “substitute drug” by those who ignore the positive benefits that it has clearly brought to society. These attitudes negatively impact opiate treatment programs (OTPs) in a variety of ways, but it is the patients themselves who are particularly stigmatized and harmed. The atmosphere will not change as long as there is no organization or formal mechanism for patients receiving Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT i.e. methadone and buprenorphine) to voice their own needs and to form a strong unified public presence on their own behalf. NAMA Recovery actively responds to the issues that affect the daily lives of MAT patients and work towards the day when they can take pride in their accomplishments.

NAMA Recovery steadfastly oppose the undoing of 42 CFR Part 2 confidentiality protections and oppose the dismantling of the existing Public Health Law- which authorizes 42 CFR Part 2. 

NAMA Recovery is opposed to the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act (HR 3545) and the exceptions it would make to the current public health law related to confidentiality of our health information. MAT patients need to know who and where their medical information goes for purposes of treatment, payment, health care operations or for any other purpose.

In our judgement, the majority has been lobbied hard by people in the insurance industry, hospital associations and vendors of electronic record keeping systems. They want the core protections to be removed for their own interests and they have no concern about the lives of patients.

We are asking everyone that cares about MAT to write a letter.  The template is below and it should only take a few minutes.  The email addresses to send the letter to follow the letter. If you do not want to give your name then use an alias like Mary Methadone or Tommy Treatment and add:

Example:

Signed

Mary Methadone

I cannot sign my real name because I am afraid of the prejudice directed towards methadone (buprenorphine) patients.

[Date]

[Your Name or Organization]

[Address]

[Address]

Representative Greg Walden

Chairman

Energy and Commerce Committee

2185 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Representative Frank Pallone, Jr.

Ranking Membero sent it to

U.S. House of Representatives

Energy and Commerce Committee

237 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, DC  20515

RE: Opposition to H.R. 3545 - “Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act” and Support for Other Legislative Proposals to Preserve Confidentiality and Coordinate Care

Dear Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Pallone:

[I/Organization name] write to express our opposition to H.R. 3545, the “Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act.”  In the midst of the worst opioid epidemic in our nation’s history, we must do everything possible to increase the number of people who seek treatment, but H.R. 3545 would do the opposite.  By reducing privacy protections for individuals receiving substance use disorder (“SUD”) treatment to allow disclosures and re-disclosures of SUD information without patient consent to a wide range of health care providers and plans and others with whom they work, H.R. 3545 would discourage people from entering care out of fear that their treatment records will be used against them in many harmful ways. 

[Describe who you are and the importance of confidentiality and patient consent to you.  If possible, cite examples of its benefits, particularly as they relate to accessing and staying in SUD treatment and/or protecting against discrimination and other negative consequences of unauthorized disclosures of SUD information.

[Here are some examples of reasons you can give for opposing this bill].

·        The heightened protections for substance use disorder records in the federal confidentiality law, 42 U.S.C. § 290dd-2 and its regulations at 42 CFR Part 2 (collectively known as “Part 2”), are as critically important today as ever.  They support care coordination while maintaining patient confidentiality to help ensure that people enter SUD treatment.

·         SAMHSA’s amendments to Part 2 by in 2017 and 2018 have made it much easier to facilitate (with patient consent) the sharing of health information between SUD and other health care providers in electronic health information systems and coordinated care settings. Unfortunately, many in the health care system do not know what these rules allow, and many SUD treatment programs do not have adequate computer systems to enable them to maintain electronic health records.

·        Patients in substance abuse disorder treatment should retain the power to decide when and to whom their records are disclosed, given the continued prevalence of discrimination in our society.

For these reasons, I/we] oppose H.R. 3545 and instead support the following bills that are critical to preserving patient confidentiality and coordinating care between various health providers:

·         The Senate’s bipartisan ‘‘Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018:’’ Provides model programs and materials for training health providers and compliance staff on the permitted uses and disclosures of substance use disorder information, and training family members and patients on their rights to protect and obtain substance use disorder information.

·         H.R. 3331 – Introduced by Representative Lynn Jenkins and co-sponsored by Representative Doris Matsui:  Provides needed incentive payments to substance use disorder and behavioral health providers to obtain certified electronic health record technology.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

[NAME]

[TITLE]

[AFFILIATION]

 Your correspondence should be e-mailed to the Minority House Energy and Commerce Committee staffer, Waverly Gordon, (Waverly.Gordon@mail.house.gov) and the Majority House Energy and Commerce Committee staffer,  Kristen Shatynski (Kristen.Shatynski@mail.house.gov).

Resources

Patient Confidentiality Campaign Launched in 42 CFR Part 2 Battle by Alison Knopf, Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, October 2, 2017  

The Campaign to Protect 42 CFR Part 2

Consensus Principles