HCA presents Recovery Navigator Q2 data: 2,635 unduplicated clients, 79% 15‑minute responses in quarter

The Health Care Authority told the Substance Use Recovery Services Advisory Committee on Tuesday that the Recovery Navigator Program handled an estimated 2,635 unduplicated individuals in the second quarter of 2025 and recorded a 79% rate of responses within 15 minutes for that quarter.

Brianna Peterson, who presented the program’s quarter‑2 report, said the quarter’s figures show both referral activity and progress on case management. “We have 2,635 unduplicated individuals,” Peterson said, and “our response time within 15 minutes was at 79%.” She also reported 535 law‑enforcement referrals that quarter and said 637 people from the referral pool were enrolled in case management during Q2.

Why it matters: committee members said response‑time measures and service‑linkage outcomes are central to judging program performance and gaps. Peterson told members the reported 15‑minute metric captures initial engagement — including telephone calls, outreach, or in‑person contact — and acknowledged the measure can reflect a variety of interactions, not a single standardized activity.

The report also included fiscal‑year totals. Peterson said the FY2025 totals show just over 10,000 estimated unduplicated individuals in referral and outreach and roughly 15,280 referrals overall, with about 2,200 law‑enforcement referrals across the year. She reported the program recorded many case‑management events in FY2025 and is working to improve counting methods and data completeness as it implements an updated data workbook.

Committee members pressed staff on cross‑database analysis to determine whether Recovery Navigator participants subsequently received medication treatment or other Medicaid‑paid services. Peterson said that analysis would require matching participant identifiers to Medicaid claims — a resource‑intensive task the agency cannot fully pursue now because of recent budget cuts and staffing constraints. “We don’t have funding to contract with RDA or an external party to do it,” she said, and proposed bringing the question to the RNP data work group to scope possible next steps.

Peterson and other staff also described a data‑improvement effort tied to “workbook version 7,” which they say will be implemented April 1, 2026; the new workbook is intended to standardize counts and permit a public‑facing dashboard in the future. Staff urged committee members to indicate whether they want reports delivered quarterly or as six‑month aggregates once the backlog of quarters is complete.

What’s next: staff will circulate the updated progress report link and discuss member preferences for reporting cadence. The RNP data work group will consider requests for deeper analyses, including any formal crosswalks with Medicaid claims, subject to available resources.

The committee moved on to other agenda items after a Q&A about definitions and metrics.