Durbin proposes expansion of substance abuse treatment for Illinois

After meeting privately with a patient inside the Gateway Foundation facility in Caseyville U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday discussed the need to expand access to treatment for those dealing with substance abuse.

Durbin has introduced legislation to expand access to treatment for people dealing with substance abuse such as heroin and opioid prescription addiction.

The proposed Medicaid Coverage for Addiction Recovery Expansion (Medicaid CARE) Act would expand access to substance abuse treatment under Medicaid and support residential addiction treatment facilities such as the Gateway Foundation alcohol and drug treatment center in Caseyville, where Durbin spoke Thursday morning. The legislation would adjust a decades-old Medicaid policy that limited treatment for people struggling with substance abuse, Durbin’s office said.

The measure would allow 2,000 additional Illinois Medicaid recipients to receive care annually, Durbin’s office said. Currently, less than 12 percent of Illinoisans in need of substance abuse treatment actually receive it.

Illinois had 1,652 overdose deaths in 2014 — a nearly 30 percent increase since 2010. Forty percent of those deaths were associated with heroin, according to Durbin’s office. In Madison County, there were 43 heroin deaths in 2015, an increase from 31 in 2014. In St. Clair County, there were 17 heroin deaths in 2015, an increase from 11 in 2014.

“There’s no town too small, and no suburb is too wealthy to avoid it,” Durbin said during the news conference, where he was accompanied by Michael Feaman, the executive director of Gateway’s facilities in Swansea and Caseyville.

Illinois is ranked first in the nation for a decline in treatment capacity between 2007 and 2012 – and is now ranked the third-worst in the country for state-funded treatment capacity, Durbin’s office said.

The problem of people on opioid addiction has moved from the inner cities to suburbs to outer counties, Feaman said.

“It’s a scourge and a problem that continues and I don’t see it going away,” Feaman said.

Gateway’s nine facilities across the state have 88 Medicaid beds. If approved, the legislation would allow Gateway to have 500 Medicaid beds, Feaman said.

Feaman said Gateway receives 15,000 calls a year for Medicaid admissions, but is only able to serve 20 percent of the calls. Clients who use public aid can be on waiting lists for up to five months, he added.

“We can’t continue to paralyze the addiction community, and being able to place these people needs to be paramount in our minds,” Feaman added. “It’s heartbreaking when families call you and scream on the phone we need assistance.”

There was no cost breakdown available of how much it would cost to expand addiction services.

“What’s the cost of not doing it?” Durbin asked. “What we found in the communities where the folks who are addicted are going to treatment, the jails are empty. All petty crime...starts disappearing in the community.”

Feaman added reimbursements from Illinois for Medicaid patients hasn’t been increased in years.

“Sometimes we lose money on the public-funded beds,” Feaman said. “Our mission at Gateway is to serve everyone. I will not turn anybody down. I don’t make barriers for treatment. If someone wants to be in here, we’ll make it happen.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 9:20 AM with the headline "Durbin proposes expansion of substance abuse treatment for Illinois."