Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar used the White House opioid summit on Thursday to encourage more states to use the Medicaid program as a way to fight the opioid epidemic.
The Trump administration has hastened the process by which states can apply and receive approval for Medicaid waivers, which allow them to make changes to the program so it can cover more people, or to experiment with ways to deliver better healthcare.
The Trump administration has approved five of these waivers. One way they can be used is to allow more healthcare facilities to be reimbursed for providing treatment. By law, medical facilities are not allowed to have more than 16 beds to receive Medicaid funds. The rule, which dates to 1965 and was intended to promote the expansion of smaller community-based substance abuse treatment centers, has contributed to long wait lists for treatment. More beds are allowed for states that ask to make changes through a waiver.
Azar has urged more governors to apply for waivers so more people can have access to treatment for addiction.
“I actually berated the governors saying, ‘Why have I only gotten five of these so far?’ We are eager to work with them, we have a streamlined process for approving them, and I want more,” he said.
Azar took note of actions the Trump administration has taken, including a “code-a-thon” in which data scientists spent the day at HHS headquarters coming up with tools for prevention, like apps to monitor opioid prescribing patterns. The Food and Drug Administration is working to approve more medications that will help people have access to drugs that would stave off the pangs associated with withdrawal. It recently approved a drug that needed to be administered only once a month.
The Trump administration has declared the epidemic a public health emergency and is taking into consideration a range of recommendations made by a commission the White House created.
