Direct Access allows an individual to go directly to a provider they choose to receive a comprehensive assessment and access care immediately. Direct Access removes barriers of timing associated with going through a placing authority, allows for individual choice, and removes duplication of comprehensive assessments.
Consult the Direct Access: Frequently Asked Questions page for information about issues such as (but not limited to) client choice, comprehensive assessments, counties and tribes, accessing treatment.
In November, 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a letter to announce a new direction in how the federal government would like to work with states to improve access to high quality clinically appropriate treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) and other substance use disorders (SUDs) for Medicaid beneficiaries. Following this new direction, and under the authority of section 1115(a) of the Social Security Act, Minnesota has been approved to implement an 1115 Substance Use Disorder System Reform Demonstration.
