Iowa lawmaker tries to ‘force negotiations’ over opioid settlement funds

DES MOINES — Rather than waiting for a compromise agreement, a key state lawmaker conducted a legislative hearing Monday in an effort to “force negotiations” over more than $50 million of unspent settlement funds destined for opioid addiction treatment programs in Iowa.

Lawmakers for a third consecutive year are working on the state’s plan for Iowa’s share of a national settlement with opioid manufacturers.

State law requires legislation that dictates how the settlement funds will be distributed. Republicans hold agenda-setting majorities in both chambers of the Iowa Legislature, but Senate and House Republicans have been unable to reach an agreement on how to spend Iowa’s settlement funds.

Iowa is one of just nine states without published recommendations on opioid settlement spending, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy.

Iowa’s Opioid Settlement Fund, collecting the state’s share of the national settlement, had a balance of $55.5 million as of Feb. 4, according to the nonpartisan Iowa Legislative Services Agency.

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Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, a Republican from Fort Dodge who chairs the Senate budget committee, said Monday that as of April the fund was nearly $57 million.

Kraayenbrink has been working with his budget committee colleague in the House, Rep. Gary Mohr of Bettendorf, during this year’s legislative session to come up with an agreement on how Iowa’s opioid settlement funds should be distributed. Kraayenbrink introduced legislation that would charge the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and the Iowa Attorney General with distributing most of the settlement funds, and on Monday he held a legislative hearing to foster debate.

“I just think rather than holding on, waiting for additional negotiations (with the House), we need to get a bill pushed and get the bill through and force some conversations,” Kraayenbrink said during Monday’s meeting. “And hopefully come to a resolution on what’s going to happen with the money.”

Mohr said he has been working with Iowa HHS, the AG’s Office and behavioral health providers and that the House is drafting legislation.

“We’re anxious to get a bill passed this session,” Mohr said Monday. “We pass a lot of bills in the House, and the Senate passes a lot of bills, and once we do that, we get together and come up with a compromise bill. I see this one, frankly, as no different. …

“Hopefully we’ll get ours introduced and get ours passed, and there will be a meeting, a compromise so we can get one bill passed before the end of session.”

The Senate bill, Senate Study Bill 1226, would have Iowa HHS allocate 75 percent of settlement funds and the Iowa AG’s Office 25 percent. The bill also includes $12 million in grant funding for the behavioral health nonprofit Community and Family Resources to renovate and expand one of its facilities, and $30 million to Iowa HHS to address opioid addiction.

“I’m glad to see that we have this bill before us, because Iowans have been waiting too long with this money stuck in the freezer,” Iowa Sen. Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, said during the hearing.

Where did Iowa’s opioid funds come from?

Iowa’s Opioid Settlement Fund holds money that comes to the state from national settlements with 10 companies that include opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacists. The settlements totaled $26 billion nationally, which will be paid out over 18 years.

Iowa was one of 47 states that participated in the lawsuit. Iowa is expected to receive roughly $325 million through 2039, according to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

Roughly half the money goes to state government and the other half to local governments. Per the settlement’s terms, at least 85 percent of the funds going to states and local governments must be used to treat and prevent opioid addiction.

Opioids claimed the lives of 238 Iowans in 2023, according to state figures. Iowa’s annual opioid-related death rate peaked at 258 in 2021.

The rate of Iowa’s opioid-related deaths was fourth-lowest in the nation in 2022, at 7.9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the nonprofit health care advocacy and reporting organization KFF. The U.S. average that year was 25, and the highest mark by far was West Virginia’s 70.5 deaths per 100,000.

Just $3.8 million has been allocated from the fund — and that was in 2021, to create a Medication Addiction Treatment Program administered by University of Iowa Health Care.

No allocations have been made from the fund since, because state lawmakers have not reached an agreement on how the funds should be distributed. Various proposals were introduced in the 2023 and 2024 sessions of the Iowa Legislature, but none gained enough support to pass into law.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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