With Kentucky being one of the states hit hardest by America’s opioid crisis, a new method of addiction treatment sometimes included in insurance, has been launched in the state to try to help tackle this.
Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Anthem) offers an innovative method of treatment for addiction and substance abuse in Kentucky, US by providing the care within the consumer’s home. This is achieved through a partnership with Renew Recovery (which launched the programme in July 2019), a treatment centre in Kentucky that specialises in substance abuse. While this treatment is a first for Kentucky, Anthem already provides this solution in New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut.
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A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report regarding drug-related risks in 2016 put the death rate in Kentucky for drug overdoses at 33.5 per 100,000 individuals – the fifth highest in the US. Focusing specifically on the opioid crisis, the National Institute on Drug Abuse highlighted how the death rate due to opioid prescriptions has risen steadily from 1.0 deaths per 100,000 in 1999 to 10.2 in 2017 – with the total death rate due to all opioids nearly double the national average. For comparison, the NHS reports put the England and Wales death rate at approximately 4.5 per 100,000.
Kentucky is clearly gripped by drug addiction. It is hoped that the state’s latest innovation in healthcare insurance will help bring this to an end. This benefit will be available to those with employer-based or individual health plans. Individuals who meet the criteria for the plan will undergo a regimented but personal in-home programme for a month or two before transitioning to an outpatient model lasting up to two years. This should prove helpful to Kentuckians, many of whom find outpatient centres confusing and overwhelming according to the COO of Renew Recovery.
While this is an excellent way to help treat drug addiction, there are various fears over how effective this service may be. This is fuelled by the debate around health insurance in the US in the absence of a national health service. The American Addiction Center states around 17% of the unemployed struggle with substance compared to 9% of employed individuals. Obviously, those unemployed will not have an employment-based health insurance policy, and due to being unemployed are unlikely to be able to afford a policy in their own name. This group will thus not have access to treatment, even though they desperately require it.
In the US, estimates of the population with no health insurance sit anywhere between 9% and 14%. It is likely those without any health insurance sit in some of the poorest areas of the US, which are often some of the worst hit by addiction. This will limit Renew Recovery’s and Anthem’s impact in terms of helping solve and control the drug problem in the US.
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By GlobalDataBut drug addiction has been shown to affect Americans of all incomes, and this service will certainly help those who qualify. Hopefully it will pave the way for a similar service targeted at individuals on lower incomes without health insurance.
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