Where chronic pain patients will end up

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/06/459226490/medicaid-may-soon-pay-for-some-inpatient-addiction-treatment

For decades, if people on Medicaid wanted to get treatment for drug or alcohol addiction, they almost always had to rely solely on money from state and local sources.

Now, in a dramatic shift, the federal government is likely to chip in, too. The agency that governs Medicaid is proposing to cover 15 days of inpatient rehab per month for anyone enrolled in a Medicaid managed care plan.

But in Pennsylvania, those who work in the addiction field aren’t happy with that news. While it’s a good start, they say, only 15 days of residential care isn’t nearly enough time for many people addicted to heroin, opioids, alcohol or other drugs to get clean and stay that way…