Blue Distinction Centers for Substance Use Treatment and Recovery: the newest BDC designation

As you may have read in our provider publications earlier this year, the Blue Distinction^® Specialty Care program added a new Blue Distinction^® Center designation for Substance Use Treatment and Recovery, effective January 2020.

Blue Distinction Centers are nationally designated facilities that show a commitment to delivering improved patient safety and better health outcomes, based on objective measures that were developed with input from the community and leading accreditation and quality organizations. The BDC Substance Use Treatment and Recovery program requires designated facilities to deliver coordinated multidisciplinary care to patients and provide timely access to quality medical and psychosocial care in all phases of treatment.

Designated facilities must also offer medication-assisted treatment — a method of treating opioid addiction that includes a medication component as well as behavioral therapies.

Since the new designation was announced, three substance use treatment and recovery facilities in Michigan have been designated. Additional Michigan facilities are expected to be added to the program over the next year.

Programs like this are important as they provide another tool in the fight against the opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, a statistic that highlights the seriousness of the opioid crisis and how crucial it is for patients to receive comprehensive care.

In addition to this new designation, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program is helping people find quality specialty care in the areas of bariatric surgery, cancer care, cardiac care, cellular immunotherapy, fertility care, gene therapy, knee and hip replacements, maternity care, spine surgery and transplants.

For more information

• To learn more about Blue Distinction Specialty Care and to find a Blue Distinction Center for a specific area of specialty care, visit the Blue Distinction Specialty Care website.
• Check out a new blog on the BDC Substance Use Treatment and Recovery designation on MI Blues Perspectives.