Casey Introduces Bill to Expand Care for Seniors Recovering from Substance Use Disorders

Casey’s new Residential Recovery for Seniors Act would expand access to residential recovery for older adults covered by Medicare

Casey: “Substance use disorder is a crisis in every age group and in every community across our Nation, and we must respond by giving Americans who are suffering a wide range of options to begin the road to recovery”

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, introduced the Residential Recovery for Seniors Act, which would expand access to care in residential treatment facilities for seniors recovering from substance use disorders. Currently, non-hospital-based residential substance use care is not covered by traditional Medicare. Casey’s new bill would plug this gap, allowing the millions of seniors covered by Medicare to access the full continuum of care for substance use disorders. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14).

“Despite being at higher risk for developing substance use disorders, older adults suffering from addiction are often overlooked and do not have access to the full spectrum of recovery care,” said Chairman Casey (D-PA). “The Residential Recovery for Seniors Act will provide seniors in need of help with another option for substance use treatment. Substance use disorder is a crisis in every age group and in every community across our Nation, and we must respond by giving Americans who are suffering a wide range of options to begin the road to recovery.”

“Substance use disorders among seniors are on the rise, and I’ve heard from so many families who have lost older relatives to addiction,” said Representative Lauren Underwood. “This heartbreaking loss of life is preventable, and we cannot accept this as a new normal. The Residential Recovery for Seniors Act will make sure that Medicare beneficiaries are able to access high-quality addiction treatment options.”

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are increasingly prevalent among older adults. For older Americans, factors like social isolation and increased exposure to psychoactive substances can contribute to the development of SUDs. Mortality from drug overdoses among people aged 65 and older more than tripled between 2000 and 2020. In 2022, approximately 1.7 million Medicare beneficiaries were estimated to have a substance use disorder, which is about 8 percent of Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older and 2 percent of beneficiaries under 65.

Medicare Parts A, B, and D each cover a portion of SUD services. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) classifies four levels of care for addiction treatment based on patient needs. Previously, traditional Medicare covered only the least intensive types of treatments on the continuum (Level 1), along with the most intensive treatment types (Level 4). Starting in January 2024, intensive outpatient services (Level 2) were also included in coverage to fill the gap in the middle levels of care. While this is important progress, non-hospital-based residential SUD treatment (Level 3) is still not covered by Medicare. The Residential Recovery for Seniors Act would expand Medicare coverage for residential treatment options (Level 3) for older adults and people with disabilities by creating a new benefit under Medicare Part A.

Last December, Casey held an Aging Committee hearing entitled, “Understanding a Growing Crisis: Substance Use Trends Among Older Adults,” where substance use disorder experts and older adults in recovery testified about the problems facing seniors suffering from SUDs. Several of the witnesses raised gaps in Medicare coverage of substance use treatment as a major concern. The Residential Recovery for Seniors Act would close those gaps.

Fighting the opioid epidemic and providing relief to Pennsylvanians and Americans with substance use disorder is one of Chairman Casey’s top priorities in the Senate. Over the last year, he has been traveling around Pennsylvania meeting with law enforcement and families of victims of fentanyl overdoses as he pushed for passage of the FEND Off Fentanyl Act and continues to push for passage of his Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act. Casey’s bill would increase staffing and technology to detect and stop the flow of fentanyl coming across the southwest border. It would enable U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to hire more Officers and Border Patrol Agents as well as provide funding to purchase Non-Intrusive Inspection systems, which scan vehicles and cargo at the border to provide detailed images of their interiors, and create an inspection program to increase seizure of firearms, which Mexican cartels frequently purchase in the United States and use to support their fentanyl production operations and other violent criminal enterprises.

Read more about the Residential Recovery for Seniors Act here.

###