Findings; Sense of Congress

(a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) New research shows that a dramatic rise in opioid overdose deaths among veterans in recent years has happened increasingly among veterans dying from heroin and synthetic opioids. (2) Furthermore, patients of the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs are seven times more likely to suffer from an opioid use disorder than commercially insured patients. (3) Using records of the Veterans Health Administration linked to National Death Index data, the veterans’ rate of overdose deaths from all opioids increased by 65 percent from 2010 to 2016, a rate change that includes adjustments for demographic changes in the veteran population over time. (4) Furthermore, among all opioid overdose decedents, prescription opioid receipt within three months before death declined from 54 percent in 2010 to 26 percent in 2016, yet veteran overdoses resulting in death from heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and nonprescription opioids still occurred. (5) In fact, between 2010 and 2016, the veteran death rate from heroin or from taking multiple opioids almost quintupled and the death rate from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl increased by more than five-fold. (6) Trends would suggest that, while the aggregate rise in opioid overdose deaths among veterans parallel those seen in the general population, the increase occurred mainly because of a rise in deaths from nonprescribed sources such as heroin, fentanyl, other powerful synthetic opioids, or multiple opioids in concurrent use. (b) Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that further veterans overdose prevention efforts and research should extend beyond patients actively receiving opioid prescriptions.