Need addiction help? Michigan launches tool to find treatment options

• Michigan continues to boost access to substance abuse treatment
• A new state mapping tool details providers, their services and whether they accept Medicaid
• It’s part of a larger, ongoing effort to blunt Michigan’s drug crisis, in part, by using opioid settlement dollars

Michiganders with substance use disorders involving opioids, alcohol or other drugs can now more easily find treatment.

A new online mapping tool is searchable by ZIP code, city or county, and it identifies which providers accept Medicaid and which do not.

Launched by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the site lists hundreds of treatment providers, identifying which ones provide medication assisted treatment (MAT) such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone. It also details what services are provided at each site — inpatient or outpatient services, for example.

The site launches as the state and Michigan’s local governments accept the first few years of funds from what will be an 18-year, $1.6 billion payout in opioid settlement dollars. Michigan’s portion of the national settlement is split 50/50 between the state and its counties, townships and cities.

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For its part, the state health department has listed “treatment” as one of four target areas — along with “prevention,” harm reduction” and “recovery support” — for its portion of the funds.

The state also has tried to boost access to treatment. Among its efforts, it expanded the definition of Substance Abuse Health Homes, or sites with a team-based approach to services with peer recovery coaches — staff in long-term recovery, themselves — at the center of care. 

Once focused on opioid use disorder, the homes have been redefined to include alcohol use disorder and stimulant use disorder diagnoses, allowing Medicaid to pay for services. 

Medicaid also has been expanded to allow primary care doctors to be more easily reimbursed for providing substance use disorder treatment. 

That’s no small shift. 

Medicaid is the largest source of funds for publicly funded SUD services.

Over the last fiscal year, 23,270 women entered treatment for substance use disorders. Of those women, 592 were pregnant. Moreover, 29,472 people entered treatment for primary alcohol use disorder, according to the state.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration also changed Medicaid policy, allowing primary care providers to be reimbursed for treating alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder and, in 2019, eliminating the prior authorization provision of Medicaid that slowed down access to medication assisted treatment.

Additionally, the health department worked with doctors to increase the number of buprenorphine prescribers in the state and expanded rooming-in efforts at several hospitals, allowing substance-exposed newborns to stay in the same hospital rooms as their mothers during first days of life — crucial moments that deepen a mother’s and baby’s natural instinct to bond. 

The department has also funded expanded housing and transportation efforts and helped more inmates receive medication assisted treatment in jail.