Observed each year on August 31, International Overdose Awareness Day is a time to honor those who have lost their lives to overdose, acknowledge the grief experienced by families and communities, and renew efforts to prevent overdose-related deaths.

To support data-driven overdose prevention efforts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched the Overdose Prevention Data Channel, a new resource that brings together information on both fatal and nonfatal overdoses in a single, accessible platform. The channel integrates data from multiple CDC surveillance systems, providing a comprehensive snapshot of overdose trends across the United States. By centralizing this data, public health professionals, healthcare providers, policymakers, and community organizations can more easily identify emerging trends and connect data insights to prevention and response strategies.

Through the Overdose Prevention Data Channel, users can:

• Explore national and state-level trends in fatal and nonfatal overdoses.
• Access overdose data from multiple CDC surveillance systems in one location.
• Identify evidence-based overdose prevention strategies.
• Connect with CDC programs, tools, and resources that support prevention and response efforts.
• Learn how CDC-funded initiatives help communities address the overdose crisis.

As communities continue working to reduce overdose deaths and improve access to prevention, treatment, and recovery supports, timely and reliable data remain essential tools for informed decision-making and effective intervention.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health is asking Osteopathic physicians to provide detailed and accurate information on the self-reported survey as part of the license renewal process.

Maintaining accurate and current information on providers is essential for effectively analyzing, designing, and designating areas with health care workforce shortages across Pennsylvania, and the Primary Care Office relies on this data to ensure that health care resources are allocated where they are needed most.

Read this notice for more information.

The recent national news coverage of postpartum mental health underscores both the need for compassionate, accessible resources and the important role maternal and child health programs play in helping mothers and families know where to turn.

The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline provides free, confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Individuals can call or text 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262) or webchat to connect with a trained counselor who will listen, provide support, and connect them with resources.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently taken enforcement actions focusing on Medicare laboratory payments. This includes multiple types of lab fraud, such as billing for services with no established relationship to the ordering provider, billing for services not rendered, and up-coding services.

CMS attributes the savings to advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning models that flagged unusual billing patterns before claims were paid.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health proposed updating its disease outbreak regulations for the first time in 25 years.

Proposed changes include improved disease reporting, a new birth defects registry, disease outbreak response changes, updated childcare vaccine guidelines, and a statewide vaccine tracking system. The move comes while public health strategies for responding to such outbreaks has become politicized and the proposal has already triggered a fierce backlash from Republican officials and members of the public.

More than 100 comments have been submitted to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission since the proposed regulations were published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on August 8. Comments are due by September 22.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s new Executive Order, Modernizing Emergency Management in Pennsylvania, launches a statewide effort to strengthen disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation capabilities and prepare the Commonwealth for increased emergency management responsibilities.

The order establishes an Emergency Readiness Advisory Group and directs state agencies to improve coordination and resource management. For community health centers, the initiative underscores the importance of emergency preparedness, healthcare coalition collaboration, and maintaining continuity of care during disasters and public health emergencies.