Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'It’s Like Slavery': N.C. Rehab Facility Puts People Seeking Drug Addiction Help To Work At Adult Disability Facility
Reveal: Drug Users Got Exploited. Disabled Patients Got Hurt. One Woman Benefited From It All
Amid a nationwide opioid epidemic, treatment remains out of grasp for most people struggling with addiction. ...To pay for their stay, participants must work full-time jobs and surrender their pay. An ongoing investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found that many programs exploit this arrangement, providing few actual services while turning participants into indentured servants. (Harris and Walter, 5/21)
Modern Healthcare: As Families Struggle To Get Behavioral Health Coverage, Enforcement Of Parity Laws Lags
In the midst of a national epidemic of drug addiction and overdose deaths, many families report similar battles with insurers in getting coverage for needed mental healthcare and/or addiction treatment. This includes situations when patients at high risk of relapse were discharged from residential care over clinicians' objections because their insurer stopped paying, or when patients in acute withdrawal had to wait for their insurer to approve payment for medication-assisted treatment. Some patients reportedly have died due to delays in getting needed coverage and care. Insurers blame access problems on the national shortage of behavioral health professionals and a lack of reliable quality measures for behavioral health facilities. (Meyer, 5/19)
State House News Service: Insurer To Encourage Prescription Drugs To Help With Opioid Addiction
A multi-pronged initiative that Neighborhood Health Plan is announcing Friday aims to reduce the number of opioid overdose deaths by increasing access to treatment. In hopes of addressing a clinician shortage, the insurer plans to begin offering financial incentives to encourage more providers to offer medication-assisted treatment involving Suboxone and other buprenorphine products designed to treat cravings and withdrawal systems associated with opioid dependency. (Lannan, 5/18)
