GOP lawmakers consider dropping Medicaid restrictions on opioid addiction therapy: 4 things to know

Medicaid funding for substance use disorder treatments could get a boost from lawmakers, according to The Hill.

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Here are four things to know.

1. Republican House Energy and Commerce Committee members on April 4 proposed lifting Medicaid’s “IMD (Institutions for Mental Diseases) exclusion” as part of efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.

2. The proposal would lift Medicaid limits for substance use disorder treatments at facilities with more than 16 beds, according to the report. It would specifically apply to treatment under 90 days.

3. Some lawmakers have expressed concerns about the cost of the bill as well as how it would be funded, The Hill reports, citing a previous Congressional Budget Office score estimating the cost of repealing Medicaid limits for mental health and substance use treatment would cost up to $60 billion over a decade. Right now, lawmakers have only proposed lifting the limits for substance use disorder treatment.

4. Still, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have indicated they are open to talking through the IMD exclusion issue, according to the report.

Read the full report here.

 

More articles on opioids:
Cigna: Partnership with 1.1M physicians curbed patients’ opioid use by 25%
Opioid addiction sidelined 900k workers in 2015: 3 study findings
Medicare likely to approve opioid prescription limits in April: 5 things to know

 

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