LEX18: Addiction recovery centers adjusting to payment cuts, calling the cuts ‘detrimental’ to client care

Cuts to Medicaid from the insurance companies that are hired to manage them will be “detrimental” to the recovery community, according to Isaiah House, Kentucky’s largest non-profit addiction recovery organization, Drew Amman reports for WLEX-TV-LEX18.

The insurance companies, called managed care organizations, notified their Medicaid providers that there would be payment cuts at the end of May, which went into effect on June 25.

Isaiah House told LEX18 that it is projecting a significant reduction in revenue and that it will be forced to lay off people as a result of the cuts.

“It’s very detrimental to the recovery community as a whole,” Kara Bell, Isaiah House chief development officer, told LEX18, adding that she is primarily concerned about peer support, which will be “cut down to 54 hours a year.”

Further, she told Amman, peer support will now require prior authorization, and the number of hours they are available to clients is limited. Before the cuts, prior approval was not necessary.

“Once you use your total 54 hours, you’re done when it comes to peer recovery,” Ball told Amman. “That’s going to hurt a lot of people because that is how a lot of people stay sober.”

A spokesperson for the Kentucky Association of Health Plans told LEX 18 that the cuts are the result of the passage of House Bill 695 this past session, aimed at cracking down on Medicaid fraud.

However, Roger Fox, residential director at Ethan Health, with locations in Richmond and Burlington, Kentucky, told LEX18 that peer support is vitally important for people in recovery.

“It’s not the right thing to do . . . it’s so valuable to have someone with that shared experience and that lived experience to be there to guide you through the process,” Fox told Amman.

Fox told Amman that the cuts are forcing Ethan Health to shorten the length of stay for clients in their outpatient program.

Isaiah House told LEX18 it is adjusting to these changes, working to supplement the money lost through fundraising efforts, as well as seeking corporate and individual donors.