Govt. Names Organizations That Can Accredit Methadone Programs

Four organizations were chosen last month by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to accredit programs that use methadone to treat individuals with opiate abuse and dependency.

Along with the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), the Council on Accreditation for Children and Family Services (COA), and the State of Washington Department of Social and Health Services Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse will accredit methadone treatment programs for SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).

CSAT hopes that the move to accreditation, announced last year (Psychiatric News, March 2, 2001), will lead to improvements in the quality and oversight of opioid treatment programs that use either methadone or levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol (LAAM) to prevent relapse in addiction to heroin and other opiates.

“As a benchmark of quality,” CSAT Director H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., said in a prepared statement released by the center, “accreditation indicates that an organization meets certain critical performance standards. This should enhance community confidence in opioid treatment and enhance the ability of treatment programs to access managed care contracts.”

SAMHSA Administrator Charles G. Curie added that “accreditation of methadone treatment programs is a fundamental shift in the way we approach drug abuse treatment in our nation. Accreditation can help to reduce stigma and discrimination by moving drug abuse treatment into the mainstream of medicine. Just like treatment for other diseases, physicians and other health care professionals will make decisions based on standards that emphasize best-care practices for patients.”

The final approval of the four accrediting agencies follows recommendations made in 1997 by a National Institutes of Health consensus panel, which concluded that the existing federal and state regulations limited the ability of physicians to provide methadone treatment to patients and recommended the move away from regulatory oversight to accreditation in an effort to improve the quality of care. The change is also consistent with a report by the Institute of Medicine in 1995, which stressed the need to readjust the balance among regulations, clinical practice guidelines, and quality assurance systems.

Under the regulations authorizing the new accreditation process, treatment programs must apply for certification to one of the four approved accrediting agencies no later than March 4, so that accreditation is achieved no later than May 19, 2003.

CSAT, Clark said, is providing technical assistance to help treatment programs meet the new federal regulations and the accreditation standards. Each of the four accrediting agencies will provide technical assistance to programs seeking certification through their agency.

Questions regarding technical assistance with meeting the new accreditation standards can be directed to a toll-free CSAT helpline at (800) 839-6120. Other information about the new federal regulations is available toll free from CSAT at (866) 463-6687. ▪