Lawmakers push forward bill on substance abuse treatment

Lawmakers kept alive a bill this week that its supporters say would expand access to chemical dependency treatment facilities in Montana.

Currently, the state cannot approve a facility that wants to offer chemical dependency treatment if that treatment duplicates efforts in the “existing local service.” House Bill 95 would remove that limitation.

“[It] will improve behavioral health care access, reduce provider shortage by allowing DPHHS to approve more providers to meet the needs of substance abuse in Montana,” said bill sponsor Rep. Gordon Pierson, D-Deer Lodge.

The bill made it out of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee with a unanimous vote Wednesday.

During the bill’s hearing, Zoe Barnard, division administrator for the Addictive and Mental Illness Division, said the current limit creates a government-established monopoly of one substance abuse treatment per area.

She said the current mandate limits patients’ options for treatments and can force people seeking help to wait for care.

Roughly 10 percent of Montana’s population over the age of 18 reported alcohol or illicit drug-use patterns defined as dependencey or abuse, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That percentage translates to about 80,000 Montanans, Barnard said.

“Despite this need, we know that less than 10,000 individuals received treatment in any given year in Montana within the state-approved treatment centers.”

Mike Cummins, the executive director of Flathead Valley Chemical Dependency Clinic, said it’s not the right time to change the limit.

The clinic provides services to people with addictions in Flathead, Lincoln and Sanders counties. Cummins said the clinic has balanced caseloads with limited funding to treat people well below the poverty line.

Cummins said for the roughly 30 years he’s worked in chemical dependency treatment, other facilities haven’t jumped at offering the service.

“There is a reason though that people are now interested in the funding availabilities, because there is funding,” he said.

He said historically chemical dependency treatment in the state has relied on federal block grant funding. In recent years, Montana’s Medicaid expansion created additional funding for addiction services.

Cummins said as Congress continues to work toward repealing and or replacing the health care law that created the expansion, that funding is uncertain.

“If we have to go back to the block grant — good Lord willing it’s even still available — then you’re going to have many more providers trying to stretch what, up until now, has been historically a very small pie to divide up,” he said.

Barnard said a lot has changed since the 40-year-old statute was put in place. She said the state’s economic burden associated with substance abuse is alarming.

She said according to the hospital and emergency discharge data from 2010 to 2014, there was $714 million in charges for substance abuse-related admissions to Montana hospitals or emergency departments.

“Access to the right level of care in the right environment can really reduce cost,” she said. “I also think this measure will reduce untimely deaths, I think it will reduce the cost of emergency services.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.