Convening of Experts: Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap

OSI hosted a one-day meeting of researchers, policy influentials, and other experts in the addiction and health care fields who explored opportunities and obstacles associated with addiction treatment.

The clear consensus from this meeting was the identification of addiction to drugs and alcohol as a health issue that should be treated within the financing and delivery systems of healthcare.

Discussion explored issues related to strategies in three key areas: 1) financing, 2) advocacy, and 3) efficiency, and the optimal proportionality among efforts to advance those strategies.

With respect to the creation of an initiative to close the treatment gap, meeting participants identified the following recommendations:

• Encourage expansion of line-item opportunities for funding at all levels as a short- or mid-term strategy
• Expand Medicaid programs to provide coverage for substance abuse disorders
• Encourage the integration of systems in related areas (e.g., child welfare, TANF) to offset expenditures and redeploy dollars into more unified programs to treat addictions
• Encourage managed care companies and provider coalitions to achieve efficiencies while maintaining high standards of treatment quality and preserving consumer choice
• Enhance efficiency of treatment through early intervention and post-treatment supports
• Change and improve the ways addiction and mental health treatment monies are administered
• Leverage data on treatment efficacy and advocate for substance abuse disorders to be part of the overall health care system
• Create models for advocacy and determine the best state-level infrastructure for communications
• Harness the support of a variety of stakeholders
• Measure success by increases in the number of people receiving treatment and increases in the amount of money available to fund treatment programs