Law to help drug-addicted babies signed by Obama

WASHINGTON - President Obama last week signed a new federal law that helps coordinate response related to drug-addicted babies.

The Protecting Our Infants Act of 2015 was signed by Obama on Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, spoke in favor of its passage, and used a program at Adena Regional Medical Center as a lobbying point during debate of the measure.

Both of Ohio's senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman, were co-sponsors in the Senate.

The law requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a best practices handbook for dealing with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and designate an agency to collect data on the illness. This will assist health care providers around the country in the diagnosis and treatment of newborns suffering from opiate dependency. NAS is a collection of symptoms that infants can experience as a result of prenatal exposure to drugs such as heroin, methadone, and prescription painkillers. Upon being born, this exposure to the drug ends and the babies begin to suffer from withdrawal.

“Each year, thousands of babies are born addicted to drugs. It is yet another tragic symptom of the opiates abuse crisis in Ohio and around the country,” Congressman Stivers said. “This new law makes a strong bipartisan statement about our commitment to protecting these children while we work to support families struggling with addiction.”

The Adena program, according to Stivers' statements on the House floor, resulted in 15 babies born without NAS symptoms.

Recent data shows that a record number of babies in the United States are born addicted to drugs. There are tremendous expenses that come with treating drug-related illnesses.  In 2011, Ohio alone spent more than $70 million in treatment of these conditions, including nearly 19,000 days in the hospital, with 1,649 patient admissions—which totals almost five daily.  A report by the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that the number of newborns diagnosed with NAS tripled between 2000 and 2009. Ohio experienced a more than 600 percent increase in NAS rates between 2004 and 2011.