The health care system is moving toward acknowledging substance use disorders (SUD) as chronic illnesses, yet only about 10% of people with an SUD in the last year received treatment.

Prepared for the DHCS and CDSS CalAIM Workgroup, this report explores ways to better integrate services, provide a single contact for children, and ensure access to specialty care in the child welfare system.

Launched in 2015, the Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System (DMC-ODS) is nation’s first Medicaid Section 1115 waiver to expand access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services.

The State of California is midway through a five-year effort to dramatically expand, improve, and reorganize Medi-Cal’s system for treating people with substance use disorders (SUDs).

By Jennifer Ryan, Vice President; Tanya Schwartz, Director, Medicaid Policy; and Molly Brassil, Director, Behavioral Health Policy

One would need to be completely “off the grid” to not be aware of the opioid crisis that has overtaken the country. Alarming and heart wrenching stories about the surprising range of victims of the substance use epidemic top the news headlines on a daily basis. The death rate due to drug overdoses has exceeded car accidents as the leading cause of death among adults under age 50 – since 2000, the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids (opioid pain relievers and heroin) has increased by 200%.