How Treatment Centres are facing Financial Collapse
Lesserpatients in past monthshave been coming fordrug and alcohol treatment at REACH Health Services in Baltimore. But Dr. Yngvild Olsen, the medicaldirector there,doubts ifit's for good reasons: Some have probably relapsed or stopped drug and alcohol addiction treatment, while others possibly fear infection andhave remained at home.
Beforethe pandemic, REACH, a program for outpatient treatment of substance usedisorder, received about15 new patients every week;since restrictions began,that's been down to about 5. social-distancing concerns have meant the clinic has been assisting fewer patients at a given time.
For Olsen, this is not just a medical concern; it's a business obstackle. Less money is being collected , while funding in technology for teletherapy and safety protective gearhave increased the costs.
In the previousdays, Olsen says, the program didn’t had to accountfor face shields or gowns or face masks, "reason being those are things that usually we ... have notreally had to ever use."
Olsen, who is vice president of the American Society ofAddiction Medicine, says a lotof labourers are sailingin the same ship.Some drug treatment centersthat accept Medicaid patients and those by the Children's Health Insurance Program mayfit for $15 billion in emergency aid.
Intakeof drugs and alcohol has elevated in the U.S. during the pandemic, creating a likely need for treatmentin expected months andyears. But also, thereare now a host of financial obstaclesthat threaten the presenceof most drug treatment centers inthe country.
In the pastmonth, the National Council for Behavioral Health surveyed its 3,400members. Close to all —92.6% of both inpatientand outpatient centers — had reducetheir programs, forcing many to mandateleaves to employees or lay them off. A month later into the pandemic, majority of those centers reported that they had sufficient money to go for three months or less.
"Unfortunately it's, a ceaseless cycle," says ChuckIngoglia, CEO of the council. "You have lesser staff or fewer programs, which means you can attend to fewer patients," he says,"which then has long term influence on your earnings.
Ingoglia's group and other treatment proponent requested $38.5 billion inemergency support fromCongress, so far fruitlessly.In addition, he says, a failingeconomy also concernsfuture public funding that many community treatment providers rely on.
