The Changing Medicaid Addiction Landscape – What The California Experience Can Teach Us

This week, the state of Illinois released a draft Medicaid 1115 waiver that included additional treatment benefits for addiction treatment such as extended-release injectable naltrexone, short-term residential treatment in an institution for mental disease, substance use disorder case management, withdrawal management, and recovery coaching (see Illinois’ Behavioral Health Transformation Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver). While this is only a draft waiver, and we’ll have to wait for details about Illinois’ plans, this is one piece of a broader trend. Illinois is joining a host of states – California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Virginia – that have expanded their Medicaid addiction treatment . . .