Maryland Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence
Ms. Ann Ciekot is founding partner of Public Policy Partners from 2006 to the present and has the primary focus of developing and implementing public policy initiatives in the health care and human services fields for patients. Ms. Ciekot has worked with the Maryland Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (MATOD) for over ten years as the public policy liaison and during that time, she has taken a lead role in advocacy efforts with the Maryland General Assembly to pass legislation that specifically benefitted those with substance use disorders and the treatment programs that serve them.
Ms. Ciekot has supported MATOD community partner organizations in their advocacy to achieve criminal justice reforms, addressing collateral consequences of the war on drugs, parity compliance, especially network adequacy. Ms. Ciekot is consistently fighting off legislation to restrict substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, especially Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), and consistently striving for balance in policies for pregnant women. Ms. Ciekot helped significantly increase grant funding for SUD treatment and is consistently working on increasing reimbursement rates and workforce development including progress toward reimbursement for Certified Peer Recovery Specialists, which was just passed into law and is scheduled to take effect January 2023.
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
8:45 AM – 9:15 AM