are on Washington state’s Apple Healthcare (Medicaid). Through their insurance, patients are able to stay in chemical dependency programs indefinitely and are able to fill prescriptions without prior authorization. The insurance also covers all prescriptions and clinic costs.
Medtriq’s reception room wait time has been cut down by providing patients in rural communities the opportunity to use televisits for long-distance check-ups when they don’t have to come in specifically for a blood or urine test. Because of how busy their schedules may be, these televisits allow patients to schedule webcam calls with a provider to take the place of a follow-up appointment.
Shergill has also partnered with a telepsychiatry service based out of Spokane to treat patients with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders.
Since conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety can perpetuate the cycle of addiction, Shergill said, it is important to treat the behavioral aspects that influence their substance abuse.
Shergill is facilitating communication with local organizations and healthcare networks to increase addiction treatment resources for patients. He is also scouting locations in the Southwest region of the state to potentially open a third clinic.
The successes of Medtriq’s two clinics have justified that our model works, he said. The next step is to open more clinics and provide patients with the same care.
Author: Sean Woodard
Sean Woodard is a journalist for Addiction Now and serves on the Film Department for Drunk Monkeys Literary Magazine and Film Blog. Focusing on a wide variety of interests, Sean’s fiction, film criticism, and other writing have been featured in Los Angeles Review of Books, Found Polaroids, and Los Angeles Magazine, among other publications. A native of Visalia, CA, he now resides in Orange County. Contact Sean at seanw@addictionnow.com
