There are hundreds of thousands of my fellows in America who are dying because their medical system does not know they have an underlying addiction because it doesn't show in the EMR that they have been treated for addiction.
Kennedy highlights the lack of awareness in medical records about addiction, leading to dire consequences.
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More from Patrick J. Kennedy
If this were any other issue we would move heaven and Earth to deal with it. In COVID we responded right away, everybody inoculation, everybody out there. The longest impact of COVID is going to be mental health, and yet, we don't treat it.
We wouldn't expect any less if there were any other illness. And yet we settled for less than 20 percent of Americans getting any of that today in this country.
This is why it is time to pass the Telemental Health Expansion Act which I introduced, as I mentioned, with Congresswoman Doris Matsui.