Phila.gov
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Philadelphia health officials say they are on track to spend $1.2 million in opioid lawsuit settlement cash on a specialized van equipped to dispense the addiction treatment methadone, part of an effort to expand access to the heavily regulated drug.
The mobile methadone program is part of a city spending plan for the first influx of funds from lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies that fueled the current overdose crisis when they manufactured, distributed, and marketed prescription opioid painkillers.
Last month, a city controller report warned that Philadelphia had not yet spent the money allotted for the program. This put the funding at risk, because the state trust that oversees the use of settlement funds could withhold future funding from the city if it was not spent by the end of the year, the controller’s office said in a statement.
That report was based on spending reports from March, and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility has subsequently spent more than $720,000 on the mobile methadone program, according to Sharon Gallagher, a spokesperson for the managing director’s office.
