West Virginia is the fifth and final state to announce its selection to partner with Shatterproof, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the devastation of addiction, on a pilot project to develop and implement a Rating System for Addiction Treatment Programs. West Virginia will join Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts and New York in the five-state pilot.

The Shatterproof Rating System, which was announced in December of 2018, will standardize expectations around the quality of addiction treatment across all levels of care, settings, and types of treatment. This will help to address the current fragmentation of the system, and better integrate addiction treatment into mainstream health care.

During the pilot program, Shatterproof will work with partners across the five states to test the use of three data sources to generate quality ratings: insurance claims, provider surveys, and consumer experience. The Rating System measure set was pressure tested and modified based on the recommendations from a National Quality Forum (NQF) Expert Panel and public comment period, and will be finalized during feasibility testing with treatment programs this spring.

Following data collection in the fall of this year, the quality ratings will be available to the public on a free, searchable dashboard on Shatterproof’s website as early as Q2 2020. More granular data will also be available on portals specifically for addiction treatment programs, states, and payers with the goal of driving quality improvement initiatives.

“It is critical to deliver transparent and reliable quality information directly to the people who are looking for addiction treatment,” said Gary Mendell, Founder and CEO of Shatterproof, “and, more broadly, to inform allocation of technical assistance and financial incentives needed to transform this industry.”

Upon successful completion of the two-year pilot, there will be sustained implementation in the pilot states, in addition to a phased expansion across the country. “We are thrilled to be working with this cohort of states for the pilot,” said Sam Arsenault, Director of National Treatment Quality Initiatives at Shatterproof. “The pilot states have demonstrated a commitment to ensuring that people with substance use disorders receive high-quality treatment, and recognize that setting a standard across all treatment settings is a critical step to align system-wide quality improvement.”

“The substance use epidemic continues to impact individuals and families across West Virginia,” said Cabinet Secretary Bill J. Crouch of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. “We believe the results of this pilot program will enable us to ensure effective, quality substance use disorder services are offered across the state, which in turn, will benefit those who need our help to combat this problem.”

West Virginia has taken several important steps to address the opioid epidemic, including the creation of the Ryan Brown fund, which gave DHHR the responsibility to develop long term treatment beds and expand Quick Response Teams and LEAD programs, as well as Gov. Jim Justice’s pilot projects and his “Jobs in Making You Succeed” project.

“I’ve said for a long time that I’m completely committed to trying everything humanly possible to end the drug crisis in this state once and for all,” West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said. “I’m excited about this partnership with Shatterproof because it’s another piece of the puzzle toward getting people the kind of high-quality help that is going to break the cycle of addiction. To do that, we must not only get our people access to treatment options and off drugs, but we also need to give them opportunities to get back into the workforce so they can stay off drugs for good and become productive members of society.”

At this time, the Rating System will examine addiction treatment programs at the facility level and will not generate ratings for individual clinicians. All addiction treatment facilities in the pilot states will be invited to participate by completing a Treatment Program Survey. Importantly, if programs do not respond, they will still be listed on the Rating System website, but it will indicate that there is no quality information available for this program.

To find out more information on this project and stay updated as it progresses please visit https://www.shatterproof.org/rating.

About Shatterproof

Shatterproof is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the devastation the disease of addiction causes families. Shatterproof is focused on ending the stigma of addiction and ensuring treatment in America is based upon proven research. The organization advocates for changes to federal and state policy, payer reform, and provider ratings, and provides public education through family and workplace programs.