A new 48-bed facility to treat substance use disorder in New London is being blocked from opening by the state, according to its owners.
The state will require the operator, Landmark Recovery, to treat those on Medicaid.
Jeffrey Burm, the company’s senior vice president of acquisitions and development, said the delays are over a state review process, and that the company now plans to serve Medicaid recipients.
He said when they applied for their original license, it was based on state laws that have since changed.
“The state of Connecticut changed their laws and now allows Medicaid patients to be serviced within the state,” Burm said, referring to the state’s HUSKY Health program. “And I think the name of the program is HUSKY. And once we knew that we were more than willing and would prefer to serve that Medicaid population.”
Landmark Recovery is headquartered in Tennessee and has 14 facilities in several states that serve Medicaid recipients. “We have 14 facilities, seven of them are Medicaid, seven of them are commercial. And we are very good at serving that Medicaid population, we have a lot of success with it,” Burm said.
He said they have amended their Connecticut license request. This would be the company’s first substance use disorder treatment facility in the state.
The state Office of Health Strategy must first give approval for a “certificate of need” to allow the facility to open.
Officials said the office is unable to comment on open cases but will be reviewing Landmark Recovery’s submitted “request for reconsideration” in the next few weeks.
