FSSA to Establish New Opioid Treatment Programs
FSSA Secretary Jennifer Walthall announced the new OTPs at Valle Vista Health System in Greenwood. (photo courtesy FSSA)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGovernor Eric Holcomb and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration have announced plans to add five opioid treatment programs throughout the state. The programs aim to broaden the state’s effort to combat the opioid drug epidemic.
The state has awarded OTP certifications to Valle Vista Health System in Greenwood, the Bowen Center in Allen County, the Hamilton Center in Vigo County, and Sycamore Springs in Monroe and Tippecanoe counties. The new OTPs are expected to begin offering services before June 30, 2018.
The additions bring the total number of OTPs in Indiana to 19. They will be able to use FDA-approved medications to help people manage their addiction on their way to recovery.
At a news conference Wednesday, FSSA Secretary Jennifer Walthall also announced most Medicaid members, including all Health Indiana Plan members, will have coverage for all services provided by OTPs, beginning August 1. She says adding such coverage will "remove a significant barrier to treatment for those seeking to improve their lives."
"There is extraordinary evidence that patients receiving medication assisted treatment are more likely to remain in treatment and to reduce opioid use than those who do not," said Walthall. "Ensuring medication assisted treatment is an available option to additional Hoosier communities is a significant tool to help attack Indiana’s drug epidemic."
Walthall says Indiana’s 14 current OTPs treated more than 10,000 Hoosiers in 2016.