Glenn Sterner , a Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member and assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Abington, contributed to an article on CNN and KHN about how opioid settlement funds are often shortchanged by rural communities.
The article mentions that Pennsylvania took a different route in figuring out how to distribute the opioid settlement funds among its 67 countries by devising its own formula. It considered opioid-related hospitalizations and first responders’ administration of naloxone, an overdose reversal medication. When that formula left 11 rural counties without “enough money to make an impact,” the state decided each county would receive a minimum of $1 million over the 18-year settlement period.
Sterner helped develop the state formula and co-authored a recently published research paper with Penn State colleagues Danielle Rhubart , assistant professor of biobehavioral health; Dennis Scanlon , distinguished professor of health policy and administration, and director of the Center for Health Care and Policy Research; Qiushi Chen , assistant professor in industrial and manufacturing engineering, Robert Newton, former industrial and manufacturing engineering graduate student, and Bethany Shaw , research data analyst at the College of Health and Human Development.