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Authors Posts by Jason Snyder

Jason Snyder

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Checklist concept - checklist, paper and pen

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) and the Department of Human Services (DHS) launched a new initiative designed to reduce administrative burden for substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health treatment providers that are licensed by both agencies.

Specifically, licensing staff from both DDAP and DHS will begin conducting coordinated annual inspections of SUD and mental health treatment facilities that are licensed by both agencies for outpatient, partial hospitalization, and residential services. The new initiative, which is voluntary, could impact up to 170 jointly licensed facilities that provide SUD and mental health services.

DDAP and DHS launched the new initiative today, July 14, by holding a webinar for impacted providers on the new inspection process, including how to pre-submit information. In addition, the agencies plan to survey providers to receive feedback on the new process that will allow for any necessary modifications to be made to the joint inspection process.

“On behalf of our behavioral health provider members across the Commonwealth, I want to thank DDAP and DHS for their hard work on this initiative. Reducing administrative burden has been and remains a top priority for RCPA, and we are grateful that the Shapiro Administration has responded, not only with this joint licensing inspection process, but with the other work it is currently doing to address provider burdens, including its work to reform regulations,” said Jason Snyder, Substance Use Disorder Treatment Services Director of Rehabilitation & Community Providers Association. “We look forward to continuing to collaborate with both departments in the future on additional ways to enable providers to put even more of their focus on patient care.”

Read the entire press release.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) announced today that the agency recently issued Pennsylvania’s first telehealth exceptions for a DDAP-licensed substance use disorder (SUD) treatment provider in Pennsylvania to Gateway Rehabilitation Center (GRC).

In its press release, DDAP said that telehealth and mobile treatment options have been proven to reduce barriers like transportation, stigma, and provider shortages, especially in rural and underserved communities.

GRC has been an SUD treatment provider in Pennsylvania since 1972. Its telehealth-only program will provide a secure patient portal, an interactive app, encrypted messaging, appointment reminders, resources, education, and a virtual telehealth suite that offers SUD counseling, psychiatric services, medication-assisted recovery, preventive care, and coordination to other levels of care as needed.

Prior to the creation of the telehealth-only licensure category in December 2024, only SUD treatment facilities with a physical location in Pennsylvania could apply to DDAP for a license to also offer telehealth services. This new program does not require a physical location for a treatment provider to administer telehealth services.

A facility seeking to be licensed to provide telehealth-only services, without a physical location, will be required to, among other things:

  • Maintain clinical records on a web-based electronic health record program;
  • Maintain an electronic system for personnel files, including training records; and
  • Agree to provide DDAP remote access to the facility files and client records any time access is requested in accordance with 42 CFR 2.53 — Audit and Evaluation.

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As part of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs’ (DDAP) monthly technical assistance series, Mercer, the contracted actuarial firm for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, will lead a training from 10:00 am – 11:00 am on Monday, July 7, which will be heavily focused on the infrastructure component of the upcoming American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) ambulatory level of care (i.e., outpatient) alignment audits. The goal is to help providers understand foundational requirements and allow time to develop or refine policies prior to upcoming audits. While the record review portion of the auditing tool created by Mercer will also be discussed, the primary emphasis will be on preparing providers from a systems and infrastructure standpoint.

Mercer will also share the expected timeline for the next audit cycle and provide an overview of how behavioral health managed care organizations will conduct the audits.

To receive future calendar invitations for DDAP’s technical assistance webinars, email DDAP.

Use the Microsoft Teams meeting information below to connect to the monthly technical assistance webinars.

Join the Meeting
Meeting ID: 251 094 183 507
Passcode: sM9ZF9Wi
Download Teams | Join on the web

Or call in (audio only)
+1 267-332-8737,,894440996# United States, Philadelphia
Find a local number
Phone conference ID: 894 440 996#
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African Woman Filling Survey Poll Or Form On Laptop Computer

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department, in partnership with the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Human Services (DHS), and the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP), is conducting a Women’s Health Survey to better understand the health experiences and coverage needs of women across the commonwealth.

The survey is open through July 7, 2025, and takes 10 minutes or less to complete. It is designed to capture voices from all backgrounds — including women impacted by substance use disorder — so the administration can better identify and address gaps in care, coverage, and support.

Providers are asked for their help in sharing the survey by posting the flyer in their facilities and promoting the survey link on their social media or publishing the link in newsletters. All responses are anonymous and will help inform future outreach, programming, and policy decisions.

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Drexel University’s Division of Behavioral Healthcare Education will virtually host its 33rd Annual Forensic Conference, “Contemporary Issues Impacting Forensic Services,” which will be held December 10 – 11, 2025.

Proposals for workshops are now being accepted. The conference committee is also accepting nominations for the Forensic Rights and Treatment Conference Award.

Applications are due by August 29, 2025.

Contact Yolanda Ramirez with questions.

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A new Center for American Progress (CAP) analysis estimates that if H.R. 1 were to become law, more than 1.6 million Medicaid-expansion enrollees receiving SUD treatment would become uninsured. Although these estimates reflect the House-passed bill, the Senate’s more extreme Medicaid cuts could cause even greater coverage losses and disruptions to care.

KFF developed a table that provides a summary comparison of Medicaid provisions, including details on work requirements, in the House and Senate budget reconciliation bills.

The reconciliation legislation still needs to pass the Senate, and the House and Senate will need to reconcile any outstanding differences. President Trump expects to have the reconciliation bill on his desk for signing by July 4.

The bulk of those coverage losses would come from the bill’s proposed burdensome work-reporting requirements on adults enrolled in Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act’s expansion option. Specifically, the bill would require nonpregnant, nondisabled, non-caregiver adults ages 19 to 64 to document at least 80 hours of work per month or other qualifying activities (such as job training or volunteering) in order to maintain their Medicaid coverage. Individuals unable to meet the requirement would risk losing coverage. The Senate Finance Committee text goes even further, eliminating the exemption and requiring compliance from parents with children older than age 14.

Though the bill includes an exemption for individuals with SUD from work-reporting requirements, it remains unclear how states would implement or enforce that exemption.

CAP estimates that the states with the largest coverage losses among Medicaid enrollees being treated for SUD include California (nearly 170,000), New York (nearly 166,500), Ohio (134,500), and Pennsylvania (nearly 118,000). These coverage losses reflect the size of each state’s Medicaid expansion population as well as each state’s rate of SUD treatment take-up among people with Medicaid.

Medicaid is the largest payer of behavioral health services in the United States, including for SUD treatment. According to the latest available data, Medicaid covered nearly 60 percent of all national spending on SUD treatment in 2019 — accounting for $17 billion out of the $30 billion spent across all payers.

ACA improved SUD treatment access by making SUD services one of ten essential health benefits that nearly all insurers are required to cover. The ACA also allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal-poverty level, providing millions of previously uninsured low-income adults with access to life-saving SUD treatment.

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced, along with 54 other attorneys general, a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma and owners, the Sackler family, regarding the company’s manufacturing and distribution of opioids that fueled a nationwide addiction epidemic.

The settlement resolves pending litigation against Purdue and the Sacklers, with those entities acknowledging their role in contributing to the epidemic with rampant production and aggressive marketing of opioids for decades.

The settlement also ends the Sacklers’ ownership of Purdue and their ability to sell opioids in the United States.

Pennsylvania is estimated to receive as much as $200 million from the settlement — over a period of 15 years — depending on how many municipalities sign off on the settlement terms.

Read the full press release.

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The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery (STAR) Loan Repayment Program offers up to $250,000 in student loan repayment for eligible professionals who commit to six years of full-time work providing direct SUD treatment or recovery support at an approved facility. The program is open to a range of providers, including medical, behavioral health, and peer support professionals.

Applications are due July 10, 2025. Learn more and apply.

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By Jason Snyder, Director, SUD Treatment Services, BH Division
June 2, 2025

In the latest legislative run at involuntary substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, two Pennsylvania senators co-sponsoring SB 716 are looking to amend Pennsylvania’s Mental Health Procedures Act to include SUD and alcohol use disorder (AUD) by themselves as mental illnesses. Doing so would, under the law, subject those with the disorders to involuntary commitment in the same way mental health is today; that is, individuals with an SUD can then be forced into treatment against their will, mainly through a court-petitioning process, just as an individual in a mental health crisis can be involuntarily committed to psychiatric care today.

As to whether SUD and AUD are in fact mental illnesses, Sens. Laughlin and Williams appear to be on solid ground. The most recognized and credible medical association in the country, the American Medical Association, includes SUD as a mental illness, and the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) classifies it as such. In fact, 34 states allow involuntary commitment for SUD, whereas all 50 allow involuntary commitment for a mental health issue.

But beyond that, the senators’ rationale is debatable.

Although we absolutely are still dealing with a continually evolving SUD epidemic, as of today, I would not call the epidemic unprecedented. In 2017, Pennsylvania was in unprecedented times with the highest number of annual overdose deaths ever seen at 5,456. Earlier in May of this year, the Centers for Disease Control released preliminary data that showed overdose deaths down 31 percent to 3,358 in Pennsylvania in 2024 over 2023. Had it not been for the Covid years, we may well have seen a continual annual decline from 2020 through today.

Even as fentanyl has replaced heroin and adulterants like xylazine and medetomidine have exacerbated the crisis, naloxone and warm hand-off protocols – both instituted broadly around 2016 – along with improved access to evidence-based treatment including buprenorphine; increased integration of peers; and other harm-reduction strategies, including fentanyl test strips, have all over time contributed to decreasing deaths. Most experts on the ground would say we need to do more of this, as it has proven over time to save lives.

Many of those same experts also oppose any effort to force people into SUD treatment. Research evaluating its effectiveness is mixed. In one review of studies assessing the outcomes of involuntary treatment, evidence did not overall suggest improved outcomes, with some of those reviewed studies suggesting potential harms. However, other studies do suggest some benefit to involuntary treatment. For example, one study found significantly reduced emergency department visits and unplanned hospital admissions for people who received involuntary treatment. Another study found that, when interviewed six months later, the majority of involuntarily admitted patients acknowledged that they needed treatment and felt positively about having been mandated to attend.

Even so, practical considerations within Pennsylvania’s addiction treatment system remain a big hurdle, and most treatment providers agree that involuntary commitment to SUD treatment is not only ineffective; in actuality, it is a burden on the system, staff, and other patients. And at this point, there are more questions than answers. To my knowledge, the senators have not consulted the broad provider community about the bill, the immense challenges it brings, or their ideas for alternatives.

In Pennsylvania’s last legislative session, Sen. Laughlin introduced SB 962, which would have established a new involuntary commitment process for those with SUD, especially those who overdose. In opposing that bill on behalf of our SUD treatment providers, we wrote a brief position paper in 2023, highlighting our concerns: the enormous burden placed on providers to manage an unfunded, complex involuntary treatment process; the perpetuation of stigma toward the disease of addiction by introducing the complexity and trauma of the judicial system to the treatment of a disease – not the commission of a crime; and little evidence that this approach reduces overdoses and death, not to mention the lack of locked SUD treatment facilities in the commonwealth and the potential disruption to the milieu of patients who do want to be in treatment.

As a provider representative, RCPA and its members still have those concerns today and continue to oppose the senators’ current efforts.

Yet I understand the anguish of families who live the active addiction of a loved one, and the exasperation, helplessness, and hopelessness of watching a downward spiral often end in death. My family, hoping that we were going to somehow wake up from the nightmare we were living, watched it with both of my brothers, who eventually died of drug overdoses.

So with involuntary commitment a non-starter for providers because of the complexity, ambiguity, and debatable outcomes, what more can we do for those in most danger of death who seem least likely to proactively seek treatment?

First, we must sustain and improve upon what is already demonstrating effectiveness at reducing deaths; namely, widespread distribution and availability of naloxone, improved access to evidence-based treatment (including buprenorphine and methadone), increased use of peers at multiple intercepts, and other harm-reduction strategies.

In opposing SB 962 during the last legislative session, RCPA proposed that finding the will to develop programs and policies that are proven to reduce overdose deaths and better engage those with SUD with the treatment system was preferable to a well-intended but misguided involuntary commitment law. Such policies and programs would include: enabling safe access to evidence-based medications to treat opioid use disorder including, for example, immediate buprenorphine induction by emergency medical personnel at the site or instance of overdose or access to low-barrier bridge clinics; providing meaningful, sustainable funding to specially train and embed certified recovery specialists at every potential touchpoint with overdose survivors; and reforming regulations and eliminating administrative burdens that act as barriers to treatment access.

As an example of what others are proposing as alternatives to forced treatment, APA, in its journal Psychiatric Services, recently suggested focusing on the highest-risk subpopulations for brief (72 hours or less) involuntary holds, as opposed to commitments, in hospitals to allow health care providers to engage them and begin to provide ongoing care management and peer support, as opposed to simply watching the individual walk away. Could something like this work?

Most in the treatment system and arguably all harm reductionists oppose involuntary commitment for SUD. With overdose deaths continuing to trend significantly downward, now seems like an even less opportune time for reintroduction of such a bill than in the past. But clearly, some in the legislature want to do more.

What alternatives to involuntary commitment would you suggest?

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