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Plan A – A nation united: With equal access to high-quality treatment for all

Home Plan A – A nation united: With equal access to high-quality treatment for all

Plan A is a proposed piece of legislation developed by Recovery Centers of America – designed to put a stake in the ground and expand access to high-quality, effective addiction treatment for those who need it most and are currently not receiving the support or the coverage they need.

We need your help getting Plan A passed.

The problem

America is experiencing a ferocious and ubiquitous addiction crisis.

90,000

Number of Americans killed in 2015 by drug & alcohol addiction.

$1.5 TRILLION

Annual cost of addiction in America due to lost productivity, medical expenses, criminal justice, and car accidents.

10%

of Americans requiring addiction treatment actually received it from specialized facilities.

16 Days

Average wait time for veterans to be admitted into an addiction treatment facility. 60% of Veterans are waiting longer than 7 days.

The Solution: Plan A

Plan A is a plan to address the addiction epidemic in America & put patients first by:

Improving access to addiction treatment for all Americans.

Improving access to care for people who are underserved.

Ensuring coverage for Veterans & Active-Duty Military Members.

Providing medicare coverage for elderly & disabled Americans struggling with addiction.

Providing incentives for healthcare providers to open new facilities in areas of need.

Sign the Plan A petition

Fill out the form to sign the petition and support Plan A’s proposed expanded access to quality treatment. The time is now for America’s new PLAN A.

Federal roadblocks to access

Federal law restricts Americans’ access to high-quality addiction treatment.

No meaningful, national enforcement mechanism exists to penalize violations of the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), allowing group health plans and issuers to provide disparate benefits for addiction treatment and physical medical treatment.

Federal law severely limits access to addiction treatment for Medicaid and Medicare patients, and creates obstacles to addiction treatment for veterans, active duty service members, and federal employees. Furthermore, a lack of coverage for high-quality treatment under federal programs has led to no national standards for high-quality addiction treatment or coverage.

Federal law incentivizes investments in businesses located in high-unemployment, low-income and/or rural areas, but no such incentives exist for investment in residential addiction treatment facilities or outpatient programs where death rates from overdoses are high.

Plan A’s federal solutions

Our national spirit demands action because no one is immune to this ferocious disease.
Since federal law created these roadblocks, it can remove them.

Set national standards for high-quality addiction treatment

Ensure that covered services under all federal benefits programs are uniform and provided only by licensed and accredited facilities.

Establish high-quality standards for residential and outpatient addiction treatment services based on generally accepted standards of care, evidence-based practices, and the proven stepdown treatment process recommended by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Cover “structured sober living services” as a community-based service to help transition patients from residential treatment into active outpatient treatment.

Permit the treating physician to determine medical necessity for addiction treatment for minimum periods before federal programs or plans may make such determinations.

Require federal benefits programs to cover all types of medication-assisted treatment (i.e., antagonist, agonist, and partial agonist) when medically necessary.

Influence adoption of Plan A’s proposed coverage and high-quality addiction treatment standards by commercial health plans.

Facilitate and enforce compliance with the MHPAEA by commercial plans.

Expand addiction treatment coverage

Expand and improve access to high-quality addiction treatment for Americans covered by federal programs.

Medicaid – Eliminate IMD exclusion for residential addiction treatment to provide coverage for beneficiaries between the ages of 21-64. Require coverage of high-quality addiction treatment as a condition for States to receive federal Medicaid funding.

Medicare – Require coverage of high-quality addiction treatment services in residential addiction treatment facilities and outpatient addiction treatment programs.

Veterans – Allow veterans to seek addiction treatment services from civilian providers under contract with the VA if the nearest VA facility is over 40 miles away or wait times for assessment and treatment exceed 24 hours.

Active Duty Members – Allow dependents and former members to seek addiction treatment from civilian providers under all circumstances, and allow service members to seek addiction treatment services from civilian providers if the nearest military treatment facility is over 40 miles away or wait times for assessment and treatment exceed 24 hours.

Federal Employees – Require coverage of addiction treatment services under all FEHBP plans.

Expand addiction treatment capacity

Encourage investment in addiction treatment facilities by expanding addiction treatment coverage (as discussed above).

Encourage investment in addiction treatment facilities in areas of high overdose deaths by designating “addiction treatment needs areas” as areas of “severe distress” for preferential treatment under the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

Encourage investment in addiction treatment facilities by designating “addiction treatment needs areas” as “targeted employment areas” for foreign investment and expedited visa review under the EB-5 Program.

Ensure that patients who are intoxicated or in withdrawal can receive emergency addiction treatment at addiction treatment facilities.

Eliminate coverage disparities between mental health/addiction treatment and medical/surgical benefits

Establish a uniform standard for group health plans and issuers to document compliance with non-quantitative treatment limitations (e.g., pre-authorization requirements) under the MHPAEA.

Require group health plans and issuers to make compliance documentation available to applicable federal agencies, State insurance commissioners, and State Attorneys General for a 4-year period.

Permit State Attorneys General to bring civil suits against group health plans or issuers that violate the MHPAEA.

Permit the Secretaries of HHS and Labor to impose civil monetary penalties against group health plans or issuers that violate the MHPAEA.

Without federal action – and without your help, the addiction crisis in America will continue to kill our loved ones & destroy our communities.

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