Prevention services and recovery houses in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties are among at-risk programs with the federal government’s recent cuts to public health spending.
President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in late March announced the cancellation of more than $11 billion in COVID-era grants to the states, with Pennsylvania slated to lose nearly half a billion dollars.
Megan Stone, Luzerne County’s division head for the office of human services, estimates her county has about $150,000 at risk.
“I would say our department of drug and alcohol is the most affected at this point because of the cuts,” Stone said.
That's not to say there isn't a battle to save the funding, but the legal wrangling leaves local officials, like Stone, in limbo pending an outcome.
Gov. Josh Shapiro joined a multistate lawsuit against the administration over what he called the president’s “unlawful decision” to cancel the grants.
“The Trump Administration abruptly canceled Congressionally-appropriated federal funding that supports critical Pennsylvania-based initiatives like infectious disease prevention, long-term care for our seniors, and immunizations for children,” Shapiro said in a statement issued to WVIA. “When I sign a legally-binding agreement, I follow through with it — and with today’s action, I’m just asking our federal government to do the same.”
A federal judge answered that lawsuit with a temporary pause on the funding cuts.
Shapiro said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, “We just won in court to stop the Trump Administration's illegal cuts of more than half a billion dollars in public health grants owed to Pennsylvania. As a result of taking the Administration to court, these dollars will now start flowing again.”
This is the governor’s second lawsuit against the Trump administration. The first lawsuit was also successful, as the frozen federal funds were eventually released back to Pennsylvania.
Much is at stake: Pennsylvania stands to lose more than $495 million to the departments of health, human services and drug and alcohol programs.
Luzerne County: 'We just simply don't know'
Luzerne County’s office of human services, which oversees the drug and alcohol program, receives federal money in the form of American Rescue Plan (ARP) Funds and COVID-Supplemental Block Grant Funds. Both were enacted during the Biden Administration to help states recover during and after the coronavirus pandemic.
Luzerne County already used all of the COVID block grants but has ARP money left over. If that money is cancelled, it will impact prevention services, like anti-drug programming in schools, and recovery houses.
Even with the pause, Stone is not counting on the federal money any longer.
“We're as prepared as we can be to not be fully reliant on those funds,” she said.
According to Stone, the county has not received much guidance from the state.
“We just simply don't know. That's the quote that they gave us. It's frustrating from our perspective, meeting with providers who are relying on this money,” she said.
She is starting to come up with alternative ways to make ends meet.
“What we'll have to do now is be creative with how we're expending the funds, and be a little bit more choosy with how we're spending the funding that we do have,” Stone said. “We do have the opioid settlement funds so we can fill some of the drug and alcohol holes in with that funding, if it's opioid-related.”
Lackawanna County could lose $260,000
Barbara Durkin, Lackawanna County’s director of the department of health and human services and the director of drug and alcohol programs for Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties, estimates Lackawanna County has about $260,000 of ARP funding on the line.
Durkin received guidance to, “draw down any remaining COVID/ARP money we haven’t drawn down yet and do it fast” after the judge ruled in favor of the states with the temporary pause.
She said her department drew down that remaining money and is now waiting to see if it will be approved for reimbursement.
The ARP money has allowed the county to make progress on recovery initiatives.
“When you then get rid of programs like ARP and COVID funds that were allowing counties to still serve the most vulnerable people, I don't know how we're going to survive just as a system and still be able to provide the level of treatment that we've been providing, not only for drug and alcohol, but across all the human service spectrum,” Durkin said.
Durkin is preparing for further health cuts.
“If [Medicaid expansion] were to go away, that would have a huge impact on county based drug and alcohol systems and mental health systems,” she said. “All of our public health systems in the counties would be impacted by a change to the state expansion of Medicaid. We've been paying attention to what that could look like.”
Uncertainty for recovery programs
Dr. Arianne Scheller is the owner and founder of Endless Mountain Extended Care, an addiction treatment facility in Wyoming County.
She received an email from Luzerne County’s drug and alcohol program, which oversees Wyoming County, instructing her to brace for funding cuts.
The county provides her facility with funding for case management and prevention services.
She’s worried the cuts will threaten her funding even outside of ARP money. She previously applied for opioid settlement funding but doubts the county will have money to fulfill her request.
“It would only make sense that [Luzerne County] would have to use opiate settlement monies to make themselves whole in order to pay for those services. So there is a trickle down effect,” Scheller said.
Scheller understands wanting to reduce wasteful government spending. But, she’s disappointed that programs like drug prevention and recovery services are being targeted.
“Prevention and helping our children and families is definitely not fraud, waste and abuse by any stretch of imagination,” she said.
Scheller sees the potential HHS cuts as serious threats to her work. She worries Medicare and Medicaid funding will be cut.
According to Ryan Hogan, Luzerne and Wyoming Counties' administrator for drug and alcohol programs, his department is starting to formulate contingency plans in the case that there are further cuts to its budget. Cutting contracts with providers is one of the plans under consideration. Scheller feels that her facility is facing multiple threats to her various funding streams.
“Everything is just so up in the air and uncertain,” she said. “We have a lot of people on Medicaid and a lot of people that are utilizing those federal block grants for treatment. If we don't have that, we won't exist. I absolutely will not have a facility.”
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Luzerne/Wyoming contingency plans under consideration:
■ Freezing rate increases
■ Cutting contracts with providers
■ No longer accepting out of county exceptions or insurance exceptions
■ Ending all cost-sharing programs for clients with exceedingly high private insurance co-pays and deductibles
■ Reducing number of treatment days in each level of care
■ Mainly prioritizing funds for the priority populations listed in the case management and clinical services manual
— Luzerne/Wyoming Drug and Alcohol Program
