Addiction treatment centers are notoriously underpaid;Virginia is using Medicaid to boost their reimbursement rates.
"What Virginia did was use the big health plan it has
control over — Medicaid, which covers low-income people — to boost reimbursement rates to addiction treatment providers. The state started the program, the Addiction and Recovery
Treatment Services (ARTS), in April 2017. After
the program went into effect, the percent of Medicaid members with an
opioid use disorder who received treatment went up by 29 percent from
April to December 2017 compared to the same period the previous year. At
the same time, emergency department visits related to opioid use
disorders went down by 31 percent... Under ARTS, access to evidence-based anti-addiction medications like
buprenorphine is financially incentivized with higher rates."
Any thoughts? Do we think this is effective? Should more states be doing this?
Seems to be somewhat effective. I would lean towards seeing how it goes for a longer period of time and then reevaluate.
ReplyDeleteProviding treatment to low income group is a good solution, and the data tells it works. However, this program seems costly. Only with substantial government revenue, could this program implement in more states.
ReplyDeleteExpanding Medicaid for coverage is definitely helpful to low income people. I agree with Elena though. It is a costly measure and Virginia is hopefully allocating money correctly.
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