The administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday that states under the Trump administration will more swiftly be able to enact programs to help address opioid addiction than they were able to under the Obama administration.
Seema Verma, speaking at a press conference held at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, said the administration was working to approve waivers specifically under the Medicaid program, which covers low-income people in many states. She touted efforts in Utah and New Jersey that aim to provide more treatment to people with addictions from opioids such as heroin and prescription painkillers.
“The former administration set it up where they had a lot of upfront requirements for states,” Verma said about the waiver process under former President Barack Obama.
“They made the states run through a bunch of hurdles,” she continued, calling the process a “hill to climb.”
“The real difference is how we structured the waiver,” Verma said. “This is a public health emergency and people need access to services right away. It’s important immediately to make sure we are increasing access to treatment services. Not very many states were able to take advantage of it.”
States have long waiting lists for addiction treatment because of certain barriers in Medicaid. For instance, Medicaid rules state that healthcare facilities that have more than 16 beds cannot receive funding from the program. The rule dates to 1965 and was intended to promote the expansion of smaller community-based substance abuse treatment centers. Utah’s Medicaid waiver allowed more beds, and other states have sought similar waivers.
The Trump administration recently declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency but has not funded the effort, saying the money needs to be appropriated by Congress. Acting Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan, who appeared with Verma at the press conference in Atlanta, said the administration had not released a recommendation for a funding figure but noted some House lawmakers have proposed $45 billion.
President Trump donated his third-quarter presidential salary to HHS for a media campaign that Hargan said would “highlight the dangers of opioid addiction.”
CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald said media campaigns have focused on testimonials from people who are recovering from addiction as well as from families who know someone struggling with addiction.
“We have found that real people giving real experiences have real power,” she said.
Hargan, who will return to a role as HHS deputy secretary after a new secretary is confirmed, laid out the agency’s five-point strategy. HHS, which spans various departments that approve drug development and research, is working to improve surveillance, improve research on pain and addiction, release better drugs for overdose reversal, improve drugs for treatment, and improve recovery services, Hargan said.
