Committee reviews opioid settlement spending; corrections treatment and forensic surveillance requests presented

The Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee on a schedule item reviewed the state’s opioid settlement balance and heard presentations on two funding requests: a Department of Health and Human Services proposal to expand medication‑assisted treatment for incarcerated people, and a request from the Office of the Medical Examiner for ongoing funding to support forensic epidemiology and overdose surveillance.

The committee was told Utah is expected to receive about $275 million from national opioid settlements over roughly 19 years; roughly half of those collections historically are allocated to counties and local governments. Sean Faherty, legislative staff, summarized past appropriations and said about $64 million of collections to date remain unappropriated. He explained committee practice has been to treat collected but unspent settlement dollars as a limited pool and approve multi‑year (commonly three‑year) appropriations so the committee reviews commitments periodically.

Dr. Stacy Bank, executive medical director, Utah Department of Health and Human Services, introduced the corrections health presentation and Dr. Mark Wisner, director…