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Use of ORF Funds
McKinsey & Company Settlement
To date, Maryland has supported two competitive grant programs using funds received from the settlement with McKinsey & Company. Through these funding opportunities, $8,007,084.39 was allocated to support programs being implemented by local jurisdictions and local community organizations in the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. Maryland also allocated $2 million to support Maryland’s Data-Informed Overdose Risk Mitigation (DORM) initiative.
Examination and Treatment Act Grant Program
In July 2022, Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response announced $7,758,159.39 in awards through a competitive funding opportunity titled Implementing the Requirements of the Opioid Use Disorder Examination and Treatment Act. This program was designed to support local jurisdictions in implementing the requirements of the Opioid Use Disorder Examination and Treatment Act of 2019, which requires all local detention centers to establish programs to screen incarcerated individuals for opioid use disorder and offer peer recovery specialist services, counseling services to develop re-entry plans for individuals upon release, and all three FDA-approved formulations of medications for opioid use disorder, such as methadone or buprenorphine, in their facilities.
Grant awards through this program supported work in 17 local detention facilities through the 2024 fiscal year.
- As of the 2024 fiscal year, this grant program has concluded. Of the funds allocated, $4,778,170.70 was expended through the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. The unspent funds will revert to the ORF and will be available for use in future fiscal years as the ORF is a non-lapsing fund.
Access to Recovery Emergency Gap Funds Grant Program
In September 2022, Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response announced its Access to Recovery Emergency Gap Funds Grant Program. Through this program, $248,925 in funds was awarded for use in the 2023 fiscal year. Funds distributed through this grant program were eligible to reimburse emergency expenses related to recovery services, such as transportation to and from recovery programs and extended stays in recovery housing.
Access to Recovery Emergency Gap Funds grants were awarded to 12 organizations that work with individuals in substance use recovery, including recovery-focused community organizations, recovery residences that have been certified by the Behavioral Health Administration of the Maryland Department of Health, local health departments, and local behavioral health authorities.
- As of the 2024 fiscal year, this grant program has concluded. Of the funds allocated, $4,778,170.70 was expended through the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. The unspent funds will revert to the ORF and will be available for use in future fiscal years.
Data-Informed Overdose Risk Mitigation
In the 2023 fiscal year, $2 million of McKinsey & Company settlement funds were allocated to support data infrastructure improvements for the Data-Informed Overdose Risk Mitigation initiative. DORM, which was established with Maryland House Bill 922 of 2018, examines the prescription and treatment history of individuals in Maryland who died from an overdose in order to establish overdose risk profiles and to inform overdose-related programs and policy. To do this, the DORM project links various public health and public safety databases to analyze system interactions of overdose decedents, which can reveal common risk factors and highlight opportunities for intervention.
- As of the 2024 fiscal year, $1,043,578.33 of the allocated funds to support DORM have been expended.
Taken together, of the $11,567,111 received through the McKinsey settlement, $10,007,084.39 has been allocated for use, and $5,910,872 has been expended. Approximately 80 percent of McKinsey & Company settlement funds have been allocated for use at the local level and 20 percent have been allocated for use at the state level.
NOTE: These allocations were made prior to the establishment of Maryland’s Opioid Restitution Fund Advisory Council.
State-Subdivision Agreement
Targeted Abatement Funds
Funding through the Targeted Abatement Fund is formula-based as specified by the State-Subdivision Agreement. A memo from the Maryland Attorney General’s office issued on November 7, 2022, provides additional detail regarding the allocation percentages by subdivision. The allocation percentages are the same for all settlements governed by the State-Subdivision Agreement with the exception of the Walmart settlement, which includes Baltimore City in its calculations.
As specified by the State-Subdivision Agreement, eight “Qualifying Charter Counties” are eligible to receive Targeted Abatement Funds within 30 days of their receipt in the Opioid Restitution Fund. In order to qualify to receive funding, the remaining 50 municipal subdivisions are required to implement Local Abatement Plans. Local Abatement Plans must adhere to funding requirements identified by Exhibit E of the National Settlement Agreement as well as the restrictions of the Opioid Restitution Fund. Local Abatement Plans plans are required to be updated every five years.
In consultation with the Maryland Department of Health, Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response received, reviewed, and approved Local Abatement Plans from nine subdivisions in the 2024 fiscal year.
As of the 2024 fiscal year, Maryland has received a total of $77,061,864.78 in funds designated for use as Targeted Abatement grants. Of this, $58,707,649.09 was distributed to participating municipal subdivisions. Targeted Abatement Funds will be distributed to the remaining participating municipal subdivisions once their Local Abatement Plans have been established and approved.
State Discretionary Abatement Funds & State Allocation
In June 2024, the Maryland Department of Health issued a Request for Applications for funding using available funds through the State Discretionary Abatement Fund and the State Allocation. Through this competitive funding opportunity, applicants are eligible to receive up to $1 million to support programs and initiatives that meet the funding requirements of Exhibit E, the Opioid Restitution Fund, and the 2023 recommendations from the Opioid Restitution Fund Advisory Council.
The application window for this competitive fund opportunity closed on July 27, 2024, and award decisions will be announced in the near future.
Allocation Summary
As outlined above, a cumulative total of $158,381,575.35 in prescription opioid-related legal settlement funds have been deposited into the Opioid Restitution Fund as of the 2024 fiscal year. Of this, $68,714,733.48 was allocated for use at the state and local level and by private organizations and $9,237,097.27 has been expended.