Hartford Business Journal

He estimates about 70 to 80 percent of Aware's clients ages 18 to 40 are opioid misusers, like he once was. Aware says results have been so positive versus traditional treatment programs that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut in Oct. 2015 began covering the $38,000 cost of the program for plan members (who must pay deductible and co-pay). at's a lot of money for most people, but that sum would only pay for about six weeks of most inpatient treatment programs, Eacott said. Anthem, which remains the only health insurer covering the program, recently encouraged Aware to expand into New Hampshire. e company is also looking at other areas to grow. "It's been a nice synchrony because our coverage has allowed them to grow and allowed them to sort of expand and prosper and it works for both of us," said Dr. Steven Korn, behavioral health medical director for Anthem's Northeast region. Based on data so far, "what we have is better [results] than anything we've seen anywhere else," Korn said. "is was a one-year program and people with substance use disorders have chronic diseases, that don't go away in 30 days or 60 days," he said. "Part of what has frustrated us with traditional providers is the lack of continuity of care." Aware — citing 2017 Anthem data — says it produces recovery rates six times higher than the national average. While success rates from treatment programs across the country can be difficult to discern, Korn said Aware's "engagement rate" — patients who completed the yearlong program — was in the low 60 percent range early on, which he described as "phenomenal." More recent Anthem data show engagement rates between 65 and 70 percent, he said. Meantime, Aware Recovery clients who complete the program avoid negative substances 92 percent of the time throughout the year. If they relapse, it's for days rather than weeks and months. From opioids to heroin When Eacott was a day student and lacrosse player at Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor in the late-'90s, he began partying too much on weekends, typically drinking and smoking marijuana. at devolved into skipping school to smoke pot and accumulating so many unexcused absences that he was expelled his junior year. He went on to graduate from Avon High School in 1999, but was still partying. He recalls developing a "delinquent bad boy identity" as someone who wanted to procure marijuana for friends and would approach strangers at concerts to ask for drugs. He went to Clark University in Worcester, Mass., played lacrosse and continued partying. Aer his sophomore year, when his grades slipped too low to stay on the team, he transferred to Tus University outside Boston. It wasn't far enough. He met up with old friends in the area and tried Vicodin. en he tried Percocet, then OxyContin. "I started doing those more and more and then, of course, I had to find ways to support my habit," he said. So he began selling drugs. Good with computers, Eacott faked school documents, misleading his parents that he was still going to school, instead using their tuition money to buy drugs for himself and friends. He even produced a "So I got to see the face of my mother just absolutely devastated as I was being transported in the back of a Hartford police car off to Jennings Road — and obviously that look has been ingrained in my head ever since." Matt Eacott, vice president and partner, Aware Recovery Care. Matt Eacott with his support dog Keely. H B J P H O T O S \ \ B I L L M O R G A N GREATER HARTFORD HEALTH • Fall 2017 19

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