Drug abuse is a significant public health issue in the United States, with millions of people struggling with addiction to substances such as opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana. The impact of drug abuse extends beyond the individual user, affecting families, communities, and society as a whole. This article will discuss some of the challenges and opportunities facing drug abusers in the United States.

The Scope of the Problem

Drug abuse is a pervasive problem in the United States. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 21.7 million people aged 12 or older needed substance use treatment in 2019, but only 4.2 million received it. The opioid epidemic, in particular, has been a major contributor to the rise in drug abuse in the United States. In 2020, an estimated 69,710 people died from drug overdoses, with opioids being involved in 49,860 of those deaths.

Challenges Facing Drug Abusers

One of the most significant challenges facing drug abusers in the United States is access to care. Many people with substance use disorders do not seek treatment because of financial barriers, stigma, or lack of available services. Even when treatment is available, it can be difficult for patients to navigate the healthcare system and find the right provider.

Another challenge facing drug abusers is the risk of overdose. Overdose deaths have increased dramatically in recent years, driven in large part by the use of opioids. Additionally, drug abusers are at risk of developing other health problems, such as infections, liver disease, and mental health disorders.

Opportunities for Improvement

Despite these challenges, there are opportunities for improving the care of drug abusers in the United States. One area of focus is in the development of new treatments for substance use disorders. Medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone can be effective in treating opioid addiction, but access to these medications can be limited. Additionally, there is a need for more research into the efficacy of other treatments, such as behavioral therapy and peer support programs.

Another area of opportunity is in the expansion of harm reduction services. Harm reduction services, such as naloxone distribution and syringe exchange programs, can help to reduce the risk of overdose and the spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C.

Finally, there is a growing recognition of the importance of addressing the social determinants of health that contribute to drug abuse. Factors such as poverty, unemployment, and lack of access to education and healthcare can all contribute to substance use disorders. Addressing these underlying issues can help to reduce the incidence of drug abuse in the United States.

Conclusion

Drug abuse is a complex and multifaceted problem in the United States, affecting millions of people and contributing to a range of health and social problems. Improving access to care, developing new treatments, expanding harm reduction services, and addressing the social determinants of health are all areas where progress can be made to reduce the impact of drug abuse. With a comprehensive and coordinated approach, we can work towards a future where all Americans have the opportunity to live healthy, fulfilling lives, free from the burden of addiction.

Silver Service Michigan Transportation

The United States is currently experiencing a demographic shift, with the aging of the population being a significant factor. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans aged 65 and over is projected to nearly double from 52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060. This increase in the elderly population will have significant implications for society, including healthcare, social welfare programs, and the workforce. In this article, we will discuss some of the challenges and opportunities facing elderly people in the United States.

Healthcare

One of the most significant challenges facing the elderly population in the United States is healthcare. Older adults have a higher prevalence of chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis, which require ongoing medical care. Additionally, the elderly are more susceptible to infectious diseases and have a higher risk of complications from illnesses like the flu or COVID-19.

Access to healthcare can be a significant issue for elderly individuals, particularly those living in rural areas or with limited financial resources. Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and older, covers many medical services, but it does not cover all costs. Copays, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket expenses can be significant barriers to accessing care for many elderly individuals.

Social Welfare Programs

Social welfare programs such as Social Security and Medicare are essential for many elderly people in the United States. Social Security provides a monthly income to retirees and their dependents, while Medicare covers many of the costs associated with medical care. These programs have been critical in reducing poverty rates among the elderly, but they are not without their challenges.

Social Security and Medicare are both facing financial challenges as the number of people receiving benefits continues to grow. The Social Security trust fund is projected to run out of money by 2034, and the Medicare trust fund is projected to be exhausted by 2026. Policymakers will need to make significant changes to these programs to ensure that they remain sustainable for future generations.

Workforce

Many elderly individuals in the United States continue to work well into their retirement years. Some do so out of necessity, while others do so because they find fulfillment in their work. However, older workers may face age discrimination, which can make it difficult for them to find and maintain employment.

Employers can benefit from the skills and experience that older workers bring to the table, but they may need to make accommodations to ensure that these workers can perform their jobs effectively. For example, older workers may need more flexible schedules or accommodations for disabilities.

Conclusion

Elderly people in the United States face a range of challenges and opportunities as they age. Healthcare, social welfare programs, and the workforce are all areas that will need to be addressed to ensure that the aging population is able to thrive. With careful planning and policy changes, we can create a society that values and supports its elderly citizens.

Silver Service Michigan Transportation

Medical transportation services are an essential aspect of the healthcare industry, providing safe and reliable transportation to patients who require non-emergency medical care. Michigan residents can benefit from these services through various providers, including Silver Service Michigan Transportation.

Silver Service Michigan Transportation is a leading provider of medical transportation services in Michigan, serving patients with a range of medical needs. We offer a range of transportation options, including ambulatory transportation for patients who are able to walk, wheelchair transportation for patients who require a wheelchair, and stretcher transportation for patients who need to be transported lying down.

Our team of trained and experienced drivers is dedicated to providing safe and reliable transportation to patients. We understand that patients have different medical needs and may require different levels of assistance, which is why we customize our services to meet the unique needs of each patient. Our drivers are trained in CPR and first aid and can assist with any special requirements, such as administering medications or providing oxygen.

We provide transportation services for a variety of medical appointments, including doctor appointments, dialysis appointments, chemotherapy appointments, and physical therapy appointments. We also offer hospital discharge transportation services, ensuring that patients can be safely and comfortably transported home after a hospital stay.

At Silver Service Michigan Transportation, we prioritize patient safety and comfort. Our vehicles are well-maintained and equipped with the latest technology to ensure the highest level of safety and comfort for our patients. We also offer flexible scheduling to accommodate the specific needs of our patients.

If you or a loved one requires medical transportation services in Michigan, contact Silver Service Michigan Transportation today. Our team is dedicated to providing the highest quality of care and transportation services to ensure that patients receive the medical care they need.

Learn About NEMT Broker – MTM – Our Broker partner

The best healthcare services in the world can’t help you if you have no way to get there.

Nearly four million Americans miss or delay medical care each year because they lack transportation. While non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) and non-emergency transportation (NET) services account for under 1% of healthcare spending, consistent transportation access to healthcare vastly enhances health outcomes and leads to dramatic cost savings.

MTM-one of the nation’s largest and most experienced transportation brokers-thinks outside the box to provide customized solutions catered to our clients’ unique needs. With more than 25 years of experience in the NEMT industry, MTM can help you take on your biggest challenges. MTM manages every aspect of the medical transportation programs we operate, leaveraging technology and automation to better manage transportation benefits for Medicaid and Medicare programs, state and county governments, and Managed Care Organizations (MCOs). 

The MTM Advantage

As an industry leader for more than two decades, MTM has an impressive track record of working with our clients to manage NEMT. Established in 1995 for the sole purpose of coordinating disparate NEMT services, we were a pioneer in the industry and serve as a true partner in quality transportation. With reduced funding and a rising demand for transportation, MTM helps clients do more with less, lowering NEMT costs by up to 25% for previously unmanaged programs. 

Fueled by our 2022 acquisition of Veyo, MTM uses data and technology to cut NEMT program costs and improve health outcomes for your members. We’re more than just a NEMT broker. We’re part of the continuum of care, collecting meaningful data that will help you make the most out of your investment in NEMT. After all, reliable and punctual transportation leads to fewer missed appointments, better outcomes, healthier members, and ultimately improved HEDIS, STAR, and CAHPS ratings. That’s why we put real-time trip tracking and simple booking tools at members’ fingertips.

Flexible Fleets

Managing the complex and dynamic needs of a transportation network can be daunting. MTM has rural and urban networks in more than half of the United States and has the experience to quickly and efficiently build networks in new locations—including networks of Independent Driver Providers (IDPs), a Virtual Fleet model that augments traditional networks of commercial transportation providers with highly qualified and NEMT-specialized rideshare drivers. IDP fleets allow us to serve eligible members in all regions, with a focus on reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

We hold transportation providers–including IDPs–to high standards for customer service and safety, allowing you to rest assured that your members are in good hands. IDPs meet strict healthcare standards and participate in ADA education; CPR certification; and HIPAA, Sensitivity, and Medical Needs training. They also undergo drug testing and multi-level background checks to ensure safety and the highest level of service quality. 

Industry-Changing Technology

Technology is the heart of MTM’s operations, enabling automation, protocol adherence, error reduction, and instant access to data. From MTM Link–our proprietary scheduling platform–to our call mining platform, to stakeholder apps, portals, and IVA systems, we support our vision of zero missed trips.Through MTM Link, we give our stakeholders real-time visibility and transparency into NEMT performance, as well as access to trip scheduling.

Cloud-based, peer-to-peer dispatching, combined with GPS tracking, enables us to dramatically improve on-time performance and service visibility. But what does all that really mean? Our system automatically detects and adjusts for issues like traffic or vehicle breakdowns without disrupting service. We also leverage a proprietary algorithm to predict what demand will look like throughout the day based on historical and future trip data, utilization patterns, and projected pick-up times and delays. 

Real-Time Data and Insights

User-friendly, intuitive dashboards give total visibility into trip activity, including scheduling, routes, member communication, payment, and driver feedback. Plus, GPS tracking allows us to know exactly where each vehicle is and what route they’ve taken. 

Whether you want to know exactly where a member was dropped off, or how effective pre-trip reminders are, we’ve got the data to do it. In addition to trip activity, we also offer insights into costs, service levels, driver documents and credentials, utilization rates, and member trends, offering unparalleled transparency into your transportation benefit.

#1 in Customer Service

While MTM may have evolved our NEMT approach to offer self-service functionality to members, our focus on traditional customer service is unwavering. With more than 600 trained customer service agents located across 21 states, MTM handles in excess of eight million calls annually while maintaining industry-leading customer satisfaction rates exceeding 95%.

Our customer service operations exceed National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) standards for speed to answer and abandonment rates, and provide multilingual services to ensure members reach a friendly, helpful representative 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

How Do We Compare?

	Consumer Rideshare Companies		Traditional NEMT Brokers
Rideshare Technology / IDPs	X	X
Stringent Credentialing Process		X	X
Real-Time, GPS-Enabled App	X	X
Member Management		X	X
Support For All Ages, Modes, and Regions		X	X
Door-to-Door Service		X	X
Real-Time Coordination of Supply	X	X
GPS-Enabled Trip Tracking	X	X
Real-Time End-to-End Trip Management		X
Virtual Fleets		X
Predictive Analytics and Supply Matching	X	X
A Single Platform to Manage Member, Trip, and Provider Data		X
End-to-End Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Monitoring		X
Full Transparency		X
Member App		X

Transportation: the Link Between SDOH

Where we live, learn, work, and play affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. Using NEMT to ensure members get to their medical appointments is only half the battle in improving health outcomes and ensuring long-term social wellbeing. The same members who struggle to access healthcare often struggle with other Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) like economic stability, neighborhood and physical environment, food quality and stability, education, and social contact. We know there’s more health plans can do to provide community transportation for their members, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes, reducing healthcare expenses, and encouraging members to enhance their quality of life. That’s where MTM comes in.

Learn How MTM Can Help

MTM manages transportation for:

• Medicare transportation and Medicaid transportation programs
• Managed Care Organizations (MCOs)
• State and county governments
• Departments of aging
• Hospitals and health systems
• County Health and Human Service Departments

Let’s Connect

What is NEMT?

Transportation is inexpensive compared to the high and rapidly growing cost of healthcare, making it more cost-effective to transport a member to preventative care rather than waiting for a serious health condition to arise. Studies prove that increasing transportation access to medical services results in such significant savings that it justifies increased non-emergency medical transportation spending. By offering the medical transportation service to the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and other transportation broker disadvantaged populations, health plans, and state agencies:

• Remove transportation barriers
• Prevent missed medical appointments
• Decrease the impact of chronic disease
• Reduce the costs of inpatient medical treatment to Medicaid recipients
• Save substantial healthcare funding for Medicaid beneficiaries

The Brokerage Approach

As budgets continue to tighten for Medicaid-funded programs like NEMT, states and health plans face increasing pressure to reduce costs and better manage spending. Over the past two decades, many have adopted the outsourced brokerage model as a means for controlling costs, improving service quality, and promoting uniform transportation delivery, based on recommendations by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

By contracting with a broker like MTM for transportation services, state Medicaid agencies and health plans receive a liaison between members and transportation service providers, as the broker facilitates trip scheduling, service oversight, and claims processing. Nationwide, MTM maintains a network of more than 1,250 transportation providers, in addition to our national virtual fleet of IDPs. Through this network, we schedule more than 20 million trips for in excess of 15 million members nationwide while handling eight million calls every year.

A strong case can be made that improved access to non-emergency medical transportation for transportation-disadvantaged persons is cost-effective in terms of better healthcare. In some cases, this cost-effectiveness translates directly into decreases in healthcare costs that exceed the added transportation costs. In other cases, longer life expectancy or improved quality of life for those suffering from the studied conditions justifies the added costs of improved access to NEMT cost-effectiveness.

Transportation Research Board Analysis

Silver Service Michigan Transportation

Learn About Modivcare – Our broker partner

Our goal isn’t a number. It’s a difference.

Modivcare is leading the transformation to better connect people with care, wherever they are. We serve the most underserved by facilitating non-emergency medical transportation, remote patient monitoring, meal delivery, and personal and home care to enable greater access to care, reduce costs and improve outcomes.

Bringing equity, hope and healing to those who need it most

We believe social and economic factors such as where you live, work or learn should never be a barrier to care. These factors, known as the social determinants of health, lead to inequities in our healthcare system and it’s our mission to close that gap by making connections to care. To make a world of difference, one patient at a time. That’s what drives us.

Welcoming those who make a difference

Our complementary healthcare technologies and services are used with a single purpose: to connect the underserved more equitably with care. We’ve created a holistic suite of integrated supportive care solutions ready to tackle the future of healthcare.

Serving you

We work with a range of clients: public and private payers, health systems, hospitals and universities. All united in purpose to better connect people with care.

Our Purpose

Making Connections to Care

Our Vision

We drive positive health outcomes by transforming the way we connect to care.

Our Values

Because we care…

We treat everyone with dignity and RESPECT.

We earn the TRUST of our members, and each other.

We provide RELIABLE services that open doors.

We serve with courtesy and COMPASSION.

We prioritize SAFETY.

We communicate with purpose and TRANSPARENCY.