The primary manner by which states have been using Medicaid to expand access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment may actually be making it more difficult for individuals to receive the services most appropriate to their needs, a newly released paper suggests. Moreover, this preferred strategy in many cases violates the law, authors with the National Health Law Program contend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
An over‐reliance on federal block grants and "one‐off" funding initiatives has left the addiction treatment system under‐resourced to respond to an addiction crisis that stands to be at least as deadly as COVID‐19 during the span of the Biden administration, a trio of prominent researchers argue in a newly released policy paper. The authors suggest that the new administration and Congress should prioritize efforts to build on what they consider the most impactful developments in improving access and quality in addiction treatment, such as Medicaid expansion and parity mandates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Adoption of a unified public health framework for the treatment of opioid use disorders (OUDs) would encourage more continuity of care and use of evidence‐based medication treatments to combat the crisis, suggest researchers with Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Moreover, they state in a newly published paper, the "Cascade of Care" framework they seek to advance could be used to improve accreditation standards they believe do not sufficiently address providers that do not use methadone, buprenorphine or injectable naltrexone in their treatment of opioid addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
*BUPRENORPHINE, *CHRONIC diseases, *CONTINUUM of care, *HEALTH services accessibility, *INSURANCE companies, *MANAGED care programs, *MEDICAL care, *NARCOTICS, *PRIMARY health care, *SUBSTANCE abuse treatment, *HEALTH insurance reimbursement
Abstract
The article discusses a white paper issued by Beacon Health Options "Confronting the Crisis of Opioid Addication" calling for a focus on outpatient medication-assisted treatment by primary care. Topics discussed include its focus on the need to treat opioid addiction as chronic condition, its criticism of providers of detox who did not participate in the continuum of care needed for chronic conditions and its support for 10 levels of care of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).