The story of Ed Mahon of Spotlight PA

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Ed Mahon reported this story while attending the USC Annenberg Center for Health JournalismData Exchange 2024 of.

HARRISBURG — A first-of-its-kind database from Spotlight PA will make it easier for the public to track how Pennsylvania counties decided to spend tens of millions of dollars from their first rounds of opioid settlement payments – and whether a powerful state oversight board ultimately approved those decisions.

Pennsylvania expects to receive a large amount of money from these settlementsincluding up to about $1.8 billion from two waves of multi-company deals, according to a recent court order. Drug distributors, retailers and manufacturers have entered into settlements to settle claims about their role in the opioid epidemic, which continues to kill thousands of Pennsylvanians each year.

Most of the funds go to the state’s 67 counties, and the early choices those county officials make could set a precedent for years to come. Some decisions involving law enforcement, risk reduction programs, and support for the residents of a badly damaged neighborhood in Philadelphia have already sparked heated debate in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Opioid Abuse and Dependence Reduction Trust distributes the funds and reviews spending. Its 13-member board has the power to cut funding from counties if it decides they have spent money in ways that don’t align with the accords’ requirements.

Two recipients, Somerset County and Philadelphiarecently appealed to the Commonwealth Court to challenge the trust’s rejection of their spending decisions. These cases were pending since November 8.

This searchable database is based on expenditure records published by the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust, as well as a review of minutes and records of meetings and court documents. Counties had to submit their first comprehensive spending reports to the trust by March 15 this year and were asked to describe decisions made in 2022 and 2023.

The full board voted in May, June and August on whether to approve or reject the programs. A trust committee later overturned several of the rejections, including some involving The Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

The Spotlight PA database covers approximately $70 million in spending decisions involving approximately 450 programs or responses. The figures include both funds that have been reported as spent and planned expenditures.

This database builds on previous Spotlight PA reports to give the public a better understanding of these crucial spending decisions, which are often made with little public input or involvement.

A Spotlight PA and WESA story from last year revealed which counties in Pennsylvania received the most opioid settlement money per resident for 2022, revealing large differences driven by the role counties played in opioid litigation, a formula that tried to account for how hard the opioid epidemic hit different communities and other factors. The story also featured a searchable database of payments and estimates for county governments and other local agencies.

In March, Spotlight PA has partnered with WESA to request dozens of expense reports filed by counties across the state. The news organization published those reports as they came in, so lawyer, researcher, other journalistsand members of the public could understand the decisions and weigh in – before the opiate trust votes on them.

Many advocates, medical professionals and victims of the opioid epidemic have high hopes for this money. But across the country, the public — including people who have lost loved ones to the opioid crisis or who deal with it on a daily basis — don’t typically have a meaningful say in the process, the first survey of its kind by Spotlight PA and KFF Health News found earlier this year.

This database can help anyone track where money is going, an essential first step in assessing whether it is being used effectively.

Tips for using the database

You can search and sort by several criteria, including keywords, county, how much was spent or hired, and whether the program was ultimately approved.

For example:

• Searching for “York” will show 12 programs for that county. The Trust approved them all. You can click on “Details” for more information on individual programs.
• A search for “Lawrence” will bring up eight programs. Five of them were ultimately approved by the opioid trust, while the trust rejected three others.
• You can also search for keywords. For example, searching for “syringe” will return two results. One is $325,000 that Allegheny County has dedicated to a syringe services program. The other is for a Bucks County program. If you click on “Details” for the Bucks County program, you can see more information, including this description in the Program Notes column: “Ensure residents are aware of available resources, are educated on drug trends (such as such as fentanyl), drugs/syringe returns, diversion programs, availability of treatment.” (For some county programs, the trust’s public documents do not include additional details in the Program Notes section.)

• Need ideas to get you started? Here are some words that returned multiple results: police, youth, xylazine, advertising and Kensington. In some cases, you’ll need to click on “Details” to read how each word relates to the program. You can also sort programs by how much has been spent or committed to them, or if they’ve been approved since November 8.
• If you want more details? Spotlight PA provides the larger database PUBLIC. In most cases, the most useful part of the larger database might be the Program Notes column. The database can also be useful for tracking appeal information.
• Have a question, spot a problem, or see something interesting in the database? We want to hear from you! Email me (Ed Mahon) at [email protected] or call me at 717-421-2518.

BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned anything from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you that engages in accountability journalism that gets results.