The Obama administration on Friday unveiled a $94 million initiative that will fund substance abuse treatment programs at 271 community health centers in 45 states, including four in Maine.

In Maine, $1.2 million in federal dollars will flow to health centers in Portland, Bangor, Lincoln and Waterville each year for the next two years.

“This is a national crisis, but it’s particularly acute in New England,” said Rachel Kaprielian, regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, during a media conference call. “We’re taking a major step forward.”

But while the treatment community applauded the extra funding, it still falls far short of the need, they said.

“It’s not a lot of money,” said Bob Fowler, executive director of the Milestone Foundation, which operates a detox center in Portland and a residential treatment center in Old Orchard Beach. “While there has been a lot of new initiatives, they don’t respond comparably to the level of the epidemic that we’re facing. It’s really small potatoes.”

Other government measures – including a bipartisan, comprehensive $3.7 million bill approved by the Maine Legislature and signed by Gov. Paul LePage this year – are also helpful but still do not address the scope of the problem, Fowler said.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, agreed that the federal measure won’t solve the problem, but he said Friday’s announcement is a “welcome and significant step forward.”

“But more must be done. Maine is in the grip of a terrible epidemic,” King said.

Drug overdose deaths last year reached 272, an all-time high in Maine, with the vast majority caused by heroin, fentanyl or prescription opioids.

Kaprielian said the focus of the funding will be medication-assisted treatment for opioid addictions – such as Suboxone and methadone – that help reduce cravings for opioids.

About 15,500 people received treatment in Maine for opioid addictions last year through state-sponsored programs, according to Maine DHHS. How many are uninsured and can’t get into treatment programs is unknown, but officials who operate substance abuse treatment centers have told the Press Herald repeatedly that demand is far outpacing the available supply for the uninsured who can’t pay out-of-pocket.

How many people would be helped in each state by the total $94 million wasn’t immediately clear, federal officials said.

But since medication-assisted treatment on average costs about $5,000 to $7,000 per patient per year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, if patients were funded for a year-long program, it would help a few hundred people in Maine.

Treatment options in Maine are sparse, especially for the uninsured, and were further constricted last year when Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook and Spectrum Health Systems in Sanford closed.

The health centers receiving funding are Portland Community Health Center, Penobscot Community Health Center in Bangor, Health Access Network in Lincoln and Healthreach Community Health Centers in Waterville. The Waterville center will receive $250,000 per year over the next two years, while the other three centers will be funded at $325,000 per year for the next two years.

Waterville-based HealthReach Community Health Centers has 11 sites in western and central Maine, including Albion, Belgrade, Bethel, Madison, Bingham, Rangeley, Richmond, Kingfield, Strong, Coopers Mills and Livermore Falls, serving residents of more than 80 communities, according to its website.

Leslie Clark, CEO of the Portland Community Health Center, said they will hire six employees, including a doctor who will be able to prescribe Suboxone when needed. The funding will also pay for a position at Portland Community Recovery Center to help connect potential patients with treatment.

Clark said the program will launch in the next few months, and unlike many programs, they will be able to provide treatment for the uninsured.

“The need is much greater than what we are going to be able to cover,” Clark said. “But this is going to make a big difference in so many people’s lives.”

King lamented that a $600 million amendment was stripped out of a Senate bill this week that would have further boosted opioid treatment programs across the country, more than six times the funding that was reported on Friday.

The Senate approved a bill to expand treatment, but without providing any additional funding.

During a floor speech after the $600 million amendment he sponsored was defeated despite some Republican support – including that of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine – King said “we can’t solve this problem without money.”

“The old saying in Maine, and I suspect elsewhere, is ‘put your money where your mouth is’,” King said.

Joe Lawlor can be contacted at 791-6376 or at:

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