Opioids Settlement Accounting: Choosing the Right Treatment

State and local governments stand to receive more than $54 billion over 18 years from legal settlements with the manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of prescription opioids. The complexity of the settlement provisions and differences in how states are handling the distribution of proceeds to localities have resulted in there being no single answer to the question, "How should my government account for and report the settlement money?" This session lays out the steps that governments and their auditors should take and the questions they should ask in order to determine the appropriate accounting and financial reporting standards to follow.