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Health & Welfare committee amends S.36 to require Medicaid coverage for residential substance-use treatment
Summary
The Senate Health & Welfare committee voted to amend S.36 to require Vermont Medicaid coverage for high- and low-intensity residential treatment for beneficiaries with substance use disorder and co-occurring mental health conditions; the bill includes a July 1, 2025 effective date and repeal of older "public inebriate" language.
At a meeting of the Senate Health & Welfare committee, members voted to amend S.36 to require the Agency of Human Services to provide Medicaid coverage for specified residential substance use treatment for beneficiaries with co-occurring mental health conditions.
Katie, of the Office of Legislative Council, read the amendment language that adds two new sections requiring coverage. "The Agency of Human Services shall provide coverage for high intensity medically monitored residential treatment episodes to Medicaid beneficiaries with substance use disorder and a co-occurring mental health condition when high intensity medically monitored residential treatment episodes are prescribed by a healthcare professional employed by a residential treatment program who is practicing within the scope of the health professional's license," she said, and read parallel language for low-intensity clinically managed residential treatment.
The amendment requires that covered stays be for the entire length of stay prescribed by the treating healthcare professional and that the residential treatment program participate in Vermont's Medicaid program. The draft also includes two sections repealing "public inebriate" language that has not yet taken effect and sets the bill's effective date as July 1, 2025.
Committee discussion included confirmation that the Agency of Human Services and the Vermont Department of Health had been heard and expressed support for the draft language. A motion to accept the strike-all amendment (draft 3.1) to S.36 was made and placed on the floor; senators recorded on the roll call — Senator Hart, Senator Cummings, Senator Gulick and Senator Lyons — voted yes.
The committee noted next steps: the amendment will be placed on notice for Tuesday with a report to follow on Wednesday, and staff requested a section-by-section from Legislative Council by the following week to support further consideration.
The committee did not specify enrollment, per-beneficiary cost estimates, or detailed implementation schedules in the discussion; those details were not specified in the meeting record.
