Expand Vets’ Access to Methadone, Other Addiction Treatment, Report Says
The U.S. military’s Tricare program is coming under fire for not providing reimbursement for methadone maintenance and buprenorphine treatment — two leading pharmacological interventions for opioid addiction.
The Navy Times reported Nov. 5 that a new report from the Drug Policy Alliance called on the federal government to expand veterans’ access to addiction treatment, including medication-assisted therapy.
Tricare prohibits payments for “drug maintenance programs when one addictive drug is substituted for another on a maintenance basis [such as methadone substituted for heroin]” — a policy called “outrageous” by Robert Newman of the Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute.
The report said that addiction problems are strongly associated with incarceration of veterans; about 19 percent of returning Iraq and Afghan war vets have been treated by the Veterans’ Administration for addictions.
Its about time the VA got with the times. Methadone maintenance is a cure for heroin addiction , and many people live a normal life while on it. If the VA does not offer this service in a particular area, then vets should be reimbursed the money they pay at these expensive clinics.