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Addiction Treatment Advocate Reacts To Trump Win

Marvin Ventrell speaks at the Rosecrance Forum on Nov. 10, 2016

A leading addiction treatment advocate says service providers have a role in the next presidential term.

Marvin Ventrell is the Executive Director of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. He served as keynote at the annual Rosecrance Forum on Thursday. Rosecrance offers addiction services for teens and adults at more than 40 locations in Chicago and Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.

“The Affordable Care Act says, as one of the essential health care benefits, that if you are traded on the exchange, you must provide addiction care as an essential healthcare benefit. So now we have a payment stream that didn’t previously exist.”

Donald Trump has vowed to undo the Affordable Care Act.

“We don’t know what a Trump administration’s health care policy, or specifically addiction policy, is going to look like. What we do know is that we, as policy influencers and as a national addiction care society, must offer our services and expertise so that they can succeed with what has begun.”

Ventrell stressed the importance of public-private partnerships to help fund addiction treatment.

This week, the Associated Press reported that Wisconsin regulators passed an emergency rule requiring doctors to get biennial training on prescribing opioids. The guidelines call for prescribing the drugs sparingly and avoid them as a first option to treat pain. Opioid users often turn to heroin use when they aren't able to obtain a prescription.

Jenna Dooley has spent her professional career in public radio. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois - Springfield. She returned to Northern Public Radio in DeKalb after several years hosting Morning Edition at WUIS-FM in Springfield. She is a former "Newsfinder of the Year" from the Illinois Associated Press and recipient of NIU's Donald R. Grubb Journalism Alumni Award. She is an active member of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association and an adjunct instructor at NIU.
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