PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. - s4story -- To help patients suffering from a substance use disorder find facilities that deliver quality treatment and care, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association recognizes JourneyPure Emerald Coast as one of the first facilities to receive the Blue Distinction® Center for Substance Use Treatment and Recovery (BDC Substance Use Treatment and Recovery) designation, a new designation under the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program.

Blue Distinction Centers are nationally designated facilities that show a commitment to delivering improved patient safety and better health outcomes, based on objective measures developed with input from the community and leading accreditation and quality organizations.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. This highlights the seriousness of the opioid epidemic and how critical it is for patients to receive comprehensive, meaningful care. The BDC Substance Use Treatment and Recovery program requires designated facilities to deliver coordinated multidisciplinary care to patients and provide timely access to quality medical and psychosocial care in all phases of treatment. Designated facilities must also offer Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), a treatment approach that includes a medication component alongside behavioral therapy.

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"Our mission at JourneyPure Emerald Coast is to help individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders get healthy and stay healthy, said Josh Foster, Chief Marketing Officer at JourneyPure. "We are dealing with a chronic condition, but one that we know is treatable. Our commitment from the very beginning has been to hold ourselves accountable to achieving positive outcomes at a level that far exceeds national averages. By providing evidence-based, fully integrated treatment, and by staying connected to each of our patients for a full year post-discharge via state certified recovery coaches, we are doing just that. We will constantly strive to serve our community and its struggling members with the best-in-class care they deserve."

Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find quality specialty care in the areas of bariatric surgery, cancer care, cardiac care, cellular immunotherapy, fertility care, gene therapy, knee and hip replacements, maternity care, spine surgery, substance use treatment and recovery, and transplants, while encouraging health care professionals to improve the care they deliver. Research shows that, compared to other providers, those designated Blue Distinction Centers demonstrate better care quality and improved outcomes for patients. For more information about the program and for a complete listing of designated facilities, visit www.bcbs.com/bluedistinction.

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About JourneyPure
JourneyPure is a leading provider of innovative addiction treatment services, with an emphasis on treating co- occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Through a combination of inpatient facilities, outpatient centers, and proprietary coaching services, we deliver the full continuum of integrated, high-quality services to assist each patient in getting healthy and staying healthy. For more information, go to journeypure.com.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a national federation of 36 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide health care coverage for one in three Americans. BCBSA provides health care insights through Blue Cross Blue Shield, The Health of America Report® series and the national BCBS Health IndexSM. For more information on BCBSA and its member companies, visit BCBS.com.