Legislative Memo: Removing Prior Authorization for Medication-Assisted Treatment under Medicaid

In New York, the impact of the opioid epidemic has been made worse by a two-tiered system of treatment that makes life-saving medication more easily available to New Yorkers who have private insurance while leaving major barriers in place for those poorer and disproportionately Black and Latinx New Yorkers on Medicaid.

By removing the prior authorization requirement for MAT (medication assisted treatment) for those on Medicaid, A.2030/S.649 would end this two-tiered system and would instead provide New York’s poorest residents the same access to medically-necessary treatment currently available to those with greater means. The NYCLU strongly supports this legislation and urges its immediate signing into law.