Residential Addiction Treatment—The Opportunity In Changing Medicaid Policy

There are now ten state Medicaid plans that are paying for residential addiction treatment—a big increase from the three states that adopted the waiver in February of last year (see An Update On States With Medicaid 1115 Waivers For Addiction Treatment). That is 7.5 million adult Medicaid beneficiaries who are newly eligible for a residential addiction treatment benefit. In addition, there are nine states that are headed in that direction.

The backdrop is a major change in Medicaid policy. Previously, Medicaid did not cover mental health or addiction treatment provided in an institution for mental disease (IMD), defined . . .