Urging Feds To Block Cuts To Methadone Treatment Payments

Statement

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree is urging the federal government to block a cut in payments for methadone treatment being implemented by Maine's Department of Health and Human Services. The cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates put Maine at or near the bottom of the list nationally for methadone treatment rates and has contributed to decreased access to treatment for those suffering from addiction.

State officials asked for permission to lower the rates from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2012, but that request--called a State Plan Amendment--has not been granted. Despite that, state officials have reduced the weekly Medicaid (MaineCare) reimbursement rate from $80 a week to $70 and then $60. Since then, one clinic has announced its intention to close, citing the extraordinarily low reimbursement rates, another refuses to accept any MaineCare patients, and the remaining clinics struggle with higher caseloads, new limits on treatment, and low rates for providing care.

In her letter to CMS, Pingree wrote:

Despite clear evidence of a growing and critical problem, access to treatment options in Maine is declining. Maine has opted not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and that has left a significant number of Mainers uninsured and unable to afford treatment...

In 2010 there was a rate reduction in weekly MaineCare reimbursement for methadone treatment from $80 per week to $70 per week.…That rate was further reduced to $60 in 2012 -- a 25% cut in just two years. This may indeed be the lowest rate for outpatient methadone treatment in the county.

In her letter, Pingree cited the rapidly increasing rates of opioid abuse in Maine--100 overdose deaths in 2014 and 63 in the first half of 2015 alone.

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