Harckham Secures $100 Million in Substance Abuse Funding for NYS

(Albany, NY) Senator Pete Harckham, chair of the Senate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Committee, today announced that he, along with the Senate Majority, had secured $100 million in substance abuse funding in the 2019 New York State budget. The increased funding, which will go to the NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), will be used to provide lifesaving opioid addiction treatment, recovery, prevention and education services.

The final budget will also greatly improve treatment services for substance abuse in two important ways that are critically important to tackling the opioid addiction epidemic:

1) Doubles the number of days of in-patient substance use disorder treatment, from 14 to 28, before a concurrent review by insurance companies. This groundbreaking change will ensure that people struggling with addiction have insurance coverage for in-patient treatment for at least 28 days. The Governor had proposed an increase to 21 days, and at Senator Harckham’s recommendation, the Senate budget resolution increased that time frame to 28 days.

2) Reduces the number of co-pays that someone in substance abuse outpatient care must pay. Currently, substance abusers in outpatient treatment are often hit with multiple co-pays for each visit based on the number of different doctors or providers they meet with during that visit. For example, during a single outpatient visit, the patient may see a general physician, a social worker and a psychiatrist. The new budget ensures that people in outpatient care for substance abuse will be paying only a single co-pay per visit.

“We fought to increase funding to deal with the devastating opioid addiction epidemic and we won. These changes will save lives,” said Senator Pete Harckham, 40th Senate District, Chair of the Senate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Committee. “$100 million will help us make great strides in providing the treatment, recovery and prevention programs we need to reverse an epidemic that is not only destroying the lives of opioid addicts, but also destroying families and communities across New York State. Two other big budget wins - decreased co-pays for outpatient substance abuse treatment, and an increase in the minimum number of days addicts can stay in an in-patient treatment program, will help countless people suffering from substance abuse disorder have a fighting chance to recover."

New York State Senate District 40 includes parts of Northern Westchester (Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Cortlandt, Croton-on-Hudson, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Salem, Peekskill, Pleasantville, Pound Ridge, Sleepy Hollow, Somers, Yorktown) Putnam (Brewster, Carmel, Patterson, Southeast) and Dutchess (Beekman, Pawling).