By GLYNIS HART
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NEWPORT — Rep. Ann Kuster visited the Newport Health Center Monday for a tour of the building and a talk with local health care providers about the issues facing them.
Bruce King, CEO of New London Hospital, of which the Newport Health Center is an affiliate, proudly recalled the history of the health center as he welcomed Kuster.
“If you remember, in the late ‘80s we were tenants in a mall,” said King. “There was a bowling alley next to the clinic. About 10 years ago we had an opportunity to purchase the bowling alley.”
One year and eight months ago, the new building on John Stark Highway opened where the old clinic once stood. The $9 million facility was built with $2 million in local support. It provides primary care and a wide range of outpatient services, including minor surgical procedures, women’s health care, lab, EKG and X-ray services.
Kuster toured the building without interrupting any of the patient care going on, then sat down to talk with hospital officials.
Psychiatrist Benita Walton said in the wider context of the opioid epidemic, New Hampshire is the second worst affected state in the country. “We provide as much care as we can. We don’t have a suboxone clinic, that’s a concern. Fentanyl is another concern: if you think of a penny, the amount that could kill you is the size of Lincoln’s nose. There’s stronger stuff out there, too.”
Walton described one patient with an income of $20,000 per year, who is paying $6,000 a year out of pocket for suboxone. Suboxone is widely used to treat opioid addiction because it blocks the receptors in the nerve cells, preventing the user from being able to get high on opioids while taking the edge off their cravings. While many old-school practitioners believed the only way to recover from addiction was to never use any drugs again, many now believe that many addicts need medical assistance to manage the psychological and physical ills that led them to addiction in the first place.
“Suboxone has a good success rate,” said Walton.
“What’s the success rate without it?” asked Kuster.
“Very low,” said Walton.
Kuster told the medical professionals and handful of local officials about new legislation that may allow nurse practitioners to prescribe suboxone, and also raise the number of suboxone patients a doctor is allowed to have.
She described a typical hospital scenario, where one patient is receiving open heart surgery and at the same time, doctors in the ER administer Narcan to revive someone about to die of an overdose. “Then they go out in the parking lot and shoot up again,” she said. “It’s so much more expensive not to treat this.”
However, Kuster said medical practitioners told her they get insurance reimbursement for heart surgery, but not for nursing and behavioral care to manage substance use disorders. “It’s not a sustainable model without the insurance companies. Are there conversations with insurance companies about medically assisted treatment?
“We accept an incredibly high rate of relapse,” said Kuster. “Historically, I think it’s because of the stigma of this disease. We don’t say to a diabetic, ‘We can’t help you, you just ate cake.’”
Walton pointed out, “There aren’t that many psychiatrists in New Hampshire.”
Kuster also asked why New Hampshire has been so hard hit by the opioid epidemic. “In the ‘80s we had 1,000 beds for treatment. But the state did not sufficiently reimburse for treatment, so now we’re down to 250.”
She suggested the hospitals get involved in challenging the insurance companies. “In other states this is readily available. In New Hampshire, you can’t get well from this disease.”
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