Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Pallone Touts Opioid Legislation As It Becomes Law
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2018
New Law Includes Provisions Sponsored or Pushed by Pallone
Long Branch, NJ – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) touted H.R. 6, the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act as it was signed into law today by President Trump. Pallone, the Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was one of the lead negotiators on the final bipartisan bill that overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate earlier this fall.
“The opioid package being signed into law today makes important, incremental changes to support those affected by the opioid crisis,” Pallone said. “I’m particularly proud of several Democratic-led provisions that will expand access to treatment for those suffering from opioid use disorders. Specifically, the new law will expand access to medication-assisted treatment, one of the major challenges that we continue to face in the fight against this epidemic, and it will improve coverage under Medicare and Medicaid. The law also includes strong, new enforcement tools that will allow the Food and Drug Administration to combat illicit drug importation. All of these provisions make a real difference in the fight against the opioid epidemic.”
Monmouth and Ocean Counties are among the highest 5 counties in New Jersey with substance abuse treatment admissions. In 2016, there were 1409 opioid-related overdose deaths in New Jersey. Heroin-related deaths rose from 97 deaths in 2010 to 850 deaths in 2016. In New Jersey, more than 184,000 individuals have been admitted to substance abuse treatment facilities for heroin or opioid abuse since 2010 and more than 5,000 have died from heroin-related deaths since 2004.
The final bill also includes two provisions authored by Pallone. The New Jersey congressman co-authored a provision that expands Medicare coverage of Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) and medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Currently, OTPs are not recognized as Medicare providers, meaning that beneficiaries receiving MAT at OTPs for their opioid use disorders must pay out-of-pocket. In 13 states, the highest rate of opioid-related inpatient hospital stays is among individuals over the age of 65. Under H.R. 6, Medicare will pay OTPs through bundled payments made for holistic services, including necessary medications, counseling, and testing.
Pallone also authored a provision known as the SCREEN Act, which will give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the ability to take action against illicit controlled substances coming in through International Mail Facilities across the country. FDA will now be able to prohibit the importation of drugs by people who have repeatedly imported illicit drugs. It also allows the agency to cease distribution of or recall controlled substances, like opioids, if they are endangering patients.
The bill will expand the type of providers who can treat patients with buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD). Currently, only physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants can use buprenorphine (one of the drugs used in MAT) to treat patients with OUD. H.R. 6 would expand access to MAT by authorizing clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse midwives, and certified registered nurse anesthetists to treat patients with OUD with buprenorphine for five years.
While Pallone is pleased with this opioid legislation, he remains concerned by efforts by President Trump and Congressional Republicans to undermine our nation’s health care system, which will directly impact people suffering from opioid use disorders.
“Despite touting this new law today, President Trump and Congressional Republicans continue to threaten to undermine the health care that Americans rely on for opioid treatment,” Pallone continued. “It is disingenuous at best to promise relief to people struggling with opioid addiction while also attempting to cut funding for Medicaid and eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which include opioid use disorder. Rather than cutting funding for those seeking treatment and allowing insurance companies to discriminate against people struggling with addiction, we should be focused on protecting people’s access to health care and making sure they can get treatment.
“While this opioid package builds on our prior work to respond to the opioid crisis, we cannot forget the tremendous harm Republican policies would inflict on the same people this package seeks to help,” Pallone concluded.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Who Is Watch07748? Apparently It's Tony Perry
That's a question that many have asked, including the Asbury Park Press. It seems however, after Monday night's meeting of the Middletown Township Committee the answer is evident, Watch07748 is none other than Middletown Committeeman Tony Perry.
The video from Monday night's meeting is queued to where resident Jim Grenafege asked Tony Perry directly whether or not the anonymous email sent out two weeks ago by a fictitious group calling themselves, " Residents Against Over Development" attacking Democratic candidate Sean Byrnes, came from his campaign and if he had any knowledge of it before being sent to residents. Perry's non answers are very telling.
You can watch the entire 3 hour video .... HERE. The Public Comments portion of the meeting starts about 22 minutes in. A vast majority of those there to ask questions of the Township Committee were they to ask about the proposed sports complex being considered for Stevenson Park.
The video from Monday night's meeting is queued to where resident Jim Grenafege asked Tony Perry directly whether or not the anonymous email sent out two weeks ago by a fictitious group calling themselves, " Residents Against Over Development" attacking Democratic candidate Sean Byrnes, came from his campaign and if he had any knowledge of it before being sent to residents. Perry's non answers are very telling.
Tony Perry did his best two-step to avoid answering the question as it was asked, " Were you, in any shape or form associated with that email?", What followed was a political non-answer by Perry that by the omission of a direct answer, confirms that he and his campaign was responsible for it. The exchange between Grenafege and Perry lasted several minutes and became a little heated due to frustrations over non-answers (you can watch the exchange yourself, it's queued up to 2:13:35 of the video).
Bottomline here is that Tony Perry and the Middletown GOP where caught redhanded attempting to smear a rival candidate and through their own stupidity, it came back to bite them in the ass. Now Tony Perry and his buddies are backpedaling under the scrutiny of local media and outraged residents and trying to cover-up their tracks.
As I said before, the attempt of this little dirty-tricks email was underhanded and unethical. It also is in violation of campaign election laws for not being properly identified as coming from and paid for by Tony Perry's campaign.
Bottomline here is that Tony Perry and the Middletown GOP where caught redhanded attempting to smear a rival candidate and through their own stupidity, it came back to bite them in the ass. Now Tony Perry and his buddies are backpedaling under the scrutiny of local media and outraged residents and trying to cover-up their tracks.
As I said before, the attempt of this little dirty-tricks email was underhanded and unethical. It also is in violation of campaign election laws for not being properly identified as coming from and paid for by Tony Perry's campaign.
You can watch the entire 3 hour video .... HERE. The Public Comments portion of the meeting starts about 22 minutes in. A vast majority of those there to ask questions of the Township Committee were they to ask about the proposed sports complex being considered for Stevenson Park.
Monday, October 15, 2018
The Curious Case Of An Email And The October 1, 2018 Middletown Township Committee Meeting
I can't believe that I haven't posted about this earlier, but seeing how the Middletown Township Committee will be meeting tonight for the last time before the November 6th election, I thought that I better say my piece about this.
Over the weekend of September 29th, a mysterious email started to make the rounds to inboxes of Middletown residents. The email from a group calling themselves, "RESIDENTS AGAINST OVER DEVELOPMENT", warned about the over development of Middletown, specifically the Village 35 project that is being planned between Kings Highway and Kanes Lane, along Route 35. Upon closer inspection this email was nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on Middletown Democratic Candidate for Township Committee, Sean Byrnes.
No one seems to be sure exactly how many residents through out the township received this email (I personally did not receive it), but it's safe to say hundreds did. Through a little detective work and the process of elimination, it was determined that the common denominator between those that received this email was that all subscribed to the township's Alert system.
Not sure that this was the case, Sean Byrnes attended the Oct. 1st workshop meeting of the Township Committee and asked for assurances that the email which residents received 2 days earlier did not come from the township. More specifically, if anyone on the committee had knowledge of the email or if it came from anyone on the committee seeking election this year (the video below is queued to the start of Byrnes's question).
As you'd expect, everyone at the table denied any knowledge or involvement with the email. There was however, evidence to suggest otherwise.
The email from Resident Against Over Development was sent through the automated email service MailChimp. As part of the service, those that receive emails can opt-out from receiving emails by clicking on the link to unsubscribe. When the unsubscribe link was followed all the way through to completion, the link took the unsubscriber to the Twitter page of Committee person Tony Perry.
On October 5th, the Asbury Park Press jumped on the story and published, "Middletown official won't deny sending mysterious political email", in which Tony Perry wouldn't deny having any knowledge of the email previously. He also, unpromted, offered that the Township email lists are public record that anyone can access via an OPRA request.
After the Asbury Park Press's article was published, the local Middletown Patch published a follow-up report, "Middletown: OPRA Request Forced Us To Share Residents' Emails", where it's evident that after the Press's article came out, Township officials decided that the best course of action was to deny knowledge of the email and blame an anonymous OPRA request for the release of a list of township residents email addresses. When the Patch questioned Perry about any knowledge of who may have been behind the email and linked it back to his campaign Perry stated that, "he hires various political consultants to run his campaigns".
That's not a very convincing denial. To blame this on various "political consultants" running his campaign is weak and shows what kind of backbone Tony Perry has; one that's crooked and spineless. I suppose though I shouldn't expect anything different from someone who was appointed to his seat on the Township Committee by his father-in-law, Gerry Scharfenberger.
The attempt to deceive Middletown residents by sending out an anonymous, dirty trick email, thinly disguised as an anti-development appeal is underhanded and unethical. Middletown Republicans must be truly afraid of losing control of the township committee this year, to have been so desperate to send this kind of email to hundreds or thousands of residents, hoping that it would swing a few votes in their favor.
It also shows the lack of character of Tony Perry and those currently running Middletown. If Tony Perry continues to refuse to take ownership of this and would rather continue to cover it up after tonight's Committee meeting, where I'm sure he'll be asked about it, then he doesn't deserve to be elected and hold office in Middletown or anywhere else for that matter.
Over the weekend of September 29th, a mysterious email started to make the rounds to inboxes of Middletown residents. The email from a group calling themselves, "RESIDENTS AGAINST OVER DEVELOPMENT", warned about the over development of Middletown, specifically the Village 35 project that is being planned between Kings Highway and Kanes Lane, along Route 35. Upon closer inspection this email was nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on Middletown Democratic Candidate for Township Committee, Sean Byrnes.
No one seems to be sure exactly how many residents through out the township received this email (I personally did not receive it), but it's safe to say hundreds did. Through a little detective work and the process of elimination, it was determined that the common denominator between those that received this email was that all subscribed to the township's Alert system.
Not sure that this was the case, Sean Byrnes attended the Oct. 1st workshop meeting of the Township Committee and asked for assurances that the email which residents received 2 days earlier did not come from the township. More specifically, if anyone on the committee had knowledge of the email or if it came from anyone on the committee seeking election this year (the video below is queued to the start of Byrnes's question).
As you'd expect, everyone at the table denied any knowledge or involvement with the email. There was however, evidence to suggest otherwise.
The email from Resident Against Over Development was sent through the automated email service MailChimp. As part of the service, those that receive emails can opt-out from receiving emails by clicking on the link to unsubscribe. When the unsubscribe link was followed all the way through to completion, the link took the unsubscriber to the Twitter page of Committee person Tony Perry.
On October 5th, the Asbury Park Press jumped on the story and published, "Middletown official won't deny sending mysterious political email", in which Tony Perry wouldn't deny having any knowledge of the email previously. He also, unpromted, offered that the Township email lists are public record that anyone can access via an OPRA request.
After the Asbury Park Press's article was published, the local Middletown Patch published a follow-up report, "Middletown: OPRA Request Forced Us To Share Residents' Emails", where it's evident that after the Press's article came out, Township officials decided that the best course of action was to deny knowledge of the email and blame an anonymous OPRA request for the release of a list of township residents email addresses. When the Patch questioned Perry about any knowledge of who may have been behind the email and linked it back to his campaign Perry stated that, "he hires various political consultants to run his campaigns".
That's not a very convincing denial. To blame this on various "political consultants" running his campaign is weak and shows what kind of backbone Tony Perry has; one that's crooked and spineless. I suppose though I shouldn't expect anything different from someone who was appointed to his seat on the Township Committee by his father-in-law, Gerry Scharfenberger.
The attempt to deceive Middletown residents by sending out an anonymous, dirty trick email, thinly disguised as an anti-development appeal is underhanded and unethical. Middletown Republicans must be truly afraid of losing control of the township committee this year, to have been so desperate to send this kind of email to hundreds or thousands of residents, hoping that it would swing a few votes in their favor.
It also shows the lack of character of Tony Perry and those currently running Middletown. If Tony Perry continues to refuse to take ownership of this and would rather continue to cover it up after tonight's Committee meeting, where I'm sure he'll be asked about it, then he doesn't deserve to be elected and hold office in Middletown or anywhere else for that matter.
Friday, October 12, 2018
How Gov. Phil Murphy Protected New Jersey Healthcare From Trump
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy outsmarted Trump and protected his state from the president’s attempt to sabotage Obamacare.
(From Now this News)
Meet The Candidates Night, Tuesday Oct. 23rd, 7PM
On Tuesday, October 23, 2018, the Lincroft Village Green Association will host a Question and Answer forum for the candidates running for the Middletown Township Committee. All Township residents are welcome to attend. The evening will be moderated by the League of Women Voters
Lincroft Elementary School All Purpose Room
729 Newman Springs Rd, Lincroft, NJ 07738.
7:00-9:00 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM)
Please click here to submit questions to the candidates. Questions can be submitted in advance and will be accepted until Friday, October 19, 2018.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)