Floyd County approves opioid treatment clinic at Medical Center

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A new clinical option for people struggling with opioid abuse or addiction has been approved with the Floyd County Medical Center and the Mason City Clinic, using funding Floyd County is receiving from national opioid lawsuit settlements.

The program will provide weekly suboxone clinics at the Floyd County Medical Center, through video “telehealth” sessions with Mason City Clinic psychiatrist Dr. Rogerio Ramos MD.

Ramos will also chair monthly opioid committee meetings at the Medical Center.

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors first heard about the idea in August, when it was presented by Floyd County Public Health Administrator Gail Arjes, although at that time only one of the current three supervisors was on the board.

The supervisors approved the agreement between all the parties at its regular meeting Monday morning.

Arjes said in August that she had been working with Jon Perin, the chief ambulatory officer at the Floyd County Medical Center, on ways to use county opioid settlement funds.

Most of the county funds spent so far have been on opioid abuse messaging, Arjes said. While that is important, “let’s actually try to make an impact here and see if we can’t help some people that maybe have an addiction or potentially just need some treatment,” she had said.

Supervisor Gloria Carr said Monday that Floyd County has so far received almost $153,000 in settlements from lawsuits against companies that manufactured and distributed opioid medications, and that potentially more hundreds of thousands of dollars will be coming to the county.

The money from each settlement comes with specific opioid-related guidelines on how it can be used, and counties are looking for ways they can use the funds within the terms of the settlements, Carr said.

Under the agreement, Floyd County Medical Center will provide space for the telehealth clinics with Dr. Ramos, and will administer suboxone as prescribed by Ramos. The planned capacity is to serve up to 100 Floyd County residents with suboxone treatments at any given time.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, suboxone is a medication that helps reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms with opioid dependence or addiction, but that has a low potential for abuse.

Floyd County opioid settlement funds will be used to provide patient drug screening at a cost of about $250 per month; rental space at the Medical Center at $55.73 per half day per week, totaling $222.92 per month; and $300 per hour for Ramos, not to exceed $600 per month, for his work as program medical director and monthly opioid committee chair.

Thousands of U.S. cities, counties and states are receiving funds from national opioid settlements, with the total value of the settlements expected to exceed $50 billion over two decades, according to the National Association of Counties.

The settled claims with some prescription drug companies and pharmaceutical distributors are for engaging in “misleading and fraudulent conduct” in the marketing and sale of opioids.

All those receiving funds are required to use them for activities to “to remediate the opioid crisis and treat or mitigate opioid use disorder and related disorders through prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services,” according to the settlement agreements.

Also at the board meeting Monday, the supervisors:

• Approved an agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation to pass through federal Surface Transportation Block Grant funding for a paving project on County Road B60, from Highway 14 east 7 miles to County Road T64, south on T64 to B60, and then east 5.7 miles to the Nashua city limits.

Floyd County Engineer Jacob Page, in his last week working for the county, said the paving will use a cold in-place recycling (CIR) process where 4 inches of existing asphalt will be ground off, reprocessed with new oil, then laid down as a base, then a layer of new hot mix asphalt (HMA) is laid over the top of that.

The process has been used for a long time and has good results, Page said.

• Discussed the process to find Page’s replacement. Supervisor Carr said ads for a full-time county engineer for Floyd County had been posted and placed in area media, with an application deadline of Jan. 23. She said if an engineer can be found and accepts an employment offer by the end of the month there will be little impact on county project bid lettings.

• Reappointed Denise Pavlovich to a 3-year term on the Floyd County Board of Health, and reappointed Wendy Johnson to a five-year term on the Floyd County Board of Adjustment.

• Discussed whether to put a county moratorium on commercial solar energy projects on a future agenda. Supervisor Carr said the current county zoning ordinance does not include commercial solar as an allowed usage, so a moratorium is not needed, but Supervisor Chair Dennis Keifer said he will check with the county attorney to see if a solar project could be started under current county rules. It has been reported that two companies have expressed interest in commercial solar energy projects in the county.

• Started the process of crafting the county’s budget for fiscal year 2025-26 which will begin July 1. The supervisors had scheduled several days of nearly all-day meetings with the individual county department heads to begin the process, beginning after the other business on the agenda had ended on Monday.