Medicaid Delivery System Reforms to Combat the Opioid Crisis
This brief provides examples from state Medicaid programs of two innovative approaches to combat the opioid crisis, 1) health homes and 2) warm handoffs and care transitions.
As the major payer for OUD treatment in the United States, Medicaid programs are uniquely positioned to enact innovative delivery system reforms that can significantly improve OUD treatment outcomes. Most state Medicaid OUD care delivery innovations can be categorized into two main areas: 1) health homes and 2) warm handoffs and care transitions. This brief provides an overview of these approaches and offers recent examples from state Medicaid programs based on findings from an OUD policy inventory of nine state Medicaid programs that have been substantially impacted by the opioid epidemic and participate in the Medicaid Outcomes Distributed Research Network (MODRN).