WSW Helps St. Joseph’s Health to Pass Legislation to Provide Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) in Emergency Departments
In Brief
- Established a local hospital’s innovation as a national standard by drafting and passing the ALTO Act, securing its inclusion in the comprehensive SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act to combat the opioid crisis.
- Secured $10 million in annual federal grant funding in a five-year reauthorization, enabling the life-saving, non-opioid pain management model to be replicated nationwide and serve over 113,000 patients annually.
- Executed a successful multi-year advocacy strategy that guided the program from initial concept to federal law, beginning with congressional site visits and culminating in sustained appropriations and long-term legislative stability.
At the height of the opioid epidemic, emergency departments were inadvertently fueling the crisis through opioid prescriptions for acute pain. St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson pioneered an innovative non-opioid pain management program that achieved an 80% reduction in ED opioid prescriptions. The hospital sought federal recognition and funding to replicate this life-saving model nationwide.
WSW orchestrated a multi-year federal advocacy campaign beginning with facilitating New Jersey congressional delegation visits to witness the ALTO program firsthand. We drafted federal legislation establishing a national demonstration program, built a bipartisan coalition of 25+ cosponsors, and successfully incorporated the ALTO Act into the comprehensive SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. Following passage, we secured annual appropriations and guided the program through reauthorization.
The President signed the ALTO Act into law on October 24, 2018 (Pub. L. 115-271), authorizing $10 million annually in competitive grants and establishing St. Joseph’s innovation as a national standard for emergency department pain management. Through continued advocacy, we achieved reauthorization in 2022 extending the program through 2027. Federally-funded hospitals across multiple states have collectively served over 113,000 patients annually, achieving opioid reductions of 20-82% without compromising patient satisfaction or pain control—preventing countless potential opioid addictions at their source and demonstrating how clinical innovation can scale through strategic federal policy advocacy.