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Pennsylvania healthcare providers are unleashing the power of telehealth to support addiction recovery. This latest innovation in mental healthcare across the Keystone State is being led by Gateway Rehab, a nonprofit addiction recovery program fully licensed to offer comprehensive telehealth care across Pennsylvania.
Now they’re working to enhance treatment access and overcome pervasive provider shortages by training clinicians across the state to offer remote addiction recovery services. The goal is to reduce barriers to care, particularly in Pennsylvania’s rural areas, where mental health and addiction recovery services are scarce.
Telehealth Expands Low-Cost Treatment Options Across Pennsylvania
Along with a wide-ranging expansion of telehealth services comes more opportunities for addiction treatment in Pennsylvania, where the state has long seen limited care availability due to transportation, distance and provider shortages. Telehealth removes transportation barriers and increases access in rural Pennsylvania, where many counties have few physical addiction treatment facilities.
According to state officials, the recently approved online treatment model will allow licensed providers to deliver comprehensive substance use disorder (SUD) treatment remotely. This is part of a larger effort to decrease overdose deaths and modernize the behavioral healthcare treatment model.
Telehealth Offers Care for All Stages of Addiction Recovery
Dr. Julia D’Alo, Gateway Rehabilitation Center’s chief medical officer, noted that “[Substance use disorder] is a chronic disease, and people are going to have varying levels of need throughout their lives…we have to meet them at every stage, and we can do that with telehealth.”
This past summer, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs issued Gateway Rehab the state’s first telehealth exceptions granted to a licensed SUD treatment provider. Gateway Rehab has nearly 20 physical outpatient and inpatient treatment locations in the Beaver County region.
Before the approval of the telehealth program, only addiction treatment facilities with physical locations in Pennsylvania were eligible to apply for a license to offer telehealth services. The licenses are granted through the state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Since the approval, providers aren’t required to have a physical location in the state to offer telehealth services.
Telehealth Helps Combat Pennsylvania’s Overdose Crisis
According to the state’s Office of Drug Surveillance and Misuse Prevention, a life was lost to drug overdose in Pennsylvania every three hours in 2024. That’s 3,336 fatal overdoses in one year.
Gateway Rehab’s executive director of telehealth, Matthew Rumbaugh, notes that, “We were averaging about 240 patients per week [prior to the license], and now we’re at about 411. We’re seeing people all the way from Erie down to Fayette and Greene counties…the biggest barriers are stigma and transportation, but we’ve been able to help eliminate those.”
Rumbaugh explained that a client’s treatment is now handled through an app. Clients can log in to access their medical records, complete online training and journal prompts, and attend treatment sessions.
“Even if a patient is done with a certain treatment, we hope they continue to message through the app and continue to get help when they need it,” Rumbaugh said.
Pennsylvania’s Telehealth Hub Increases Treatment Access
Gateway Rehab is also gearing up to be a “telehealth hub” where they’ll be able to train substance use treatment providers at their newly renovated Robinson Township location. They’ll be inviting and training providers throughout Pennsylvania and the country on the subject of implementation and maintenance of telehealth services.
D’Alo said, “There are a lot of different ways to utilize telehealth for behavioral and physical health care, and the goal of the hub is to share this knowledge and get more people the help that they need.”
Rumbaugh remarked that they’re anticipating the opening of the new hub within the next couple of months.
He added, “The beautiful thing about having this hub and technology is that we can increase access, the length of treatment, so we can collect more comprehensive data. We then can share that with the state, so they get a better idea of what really is happening and how to plan from there.”
SB 739 passed in June of 2024 and was crucial to the effort of acquiring these new licenses, since the bill made it mandatory for insurance providers to pay for the covered services provided through the telehealth option, Rumbaugh noted.
He also noted that, “You can’t implement a telehealth program, nor can you sustain a telehealth program if it is not reimbursed.
Only one other provider has been granted the telehealth license, according to the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, but they’re expecting that number to grow. With SB 739 and Medicaid coverage now supporting telehealth addiction services, clients can access care from home without worring about cost barriers.
Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania, proposed a new Rural Health Transformation Plan in November. If the plan’s approved by the federal government, it will provide as much as $200 million per year for five years to rural communities. The funding will include technology investments, such as telehealth.
The new state budget is also a win for clients using Medicaid, since an amendment to the Human Services code removed the in-person requirement for behavioral health and SUD treatment, according to the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
This will also expand telehealth access for those using Medicaid. According to the state’s Department of Human Services, about 23% of Pennsylvania residents use Medicaid.
Across the state, there are about 400 licensed recovery houses and almost 800 physical SUD treatment facilities.
Find Affordable Telehealth Addiction Treatment Near You
If you or a loved one need addiction recovery care, telehealth makes treatment more accessible than ever.
Explore rehab centers and programs by treatment type, payment options (including Medicaid and sliding scale plans), and specialty features. For immediate confidential support, call
800-914-7089
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