Senator Hassan Presses For-Profit Methadone Clinic Chain Over Allegations of Undermining Patient Care

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, today pressed New Season - the largest operator of methadone clinics in New Hampshire - for answers amid an ongoing investigation led by the Senator. Her request makes public for the first time serious allegations against New Season of actions that make it harder for people to receive the addiction treatment they need. This request is part of Senator Hassan's overall efforts to expand access to medication-assisted treatment, which includes methadone and buprenorphine. Medication-assisted treatment is considered the gold standard for opioid addiction treatment, as it helps people recover and significantly decreases the likelihood of relapse.

"Drug overdoses killed nearly 79,400 Americans in 2024 - and nearly 300 New Hampshire residents - yet only 25 percent of Americans with opioid addiction receive medication-assisted treatment, the gold standard for opioid addiction treatment," wrote Senator Hassan as part of her push for answers from New Season. "These allegations are described below and, if true, require prompt corrective action."

Senator Hassan's ongoing investigation into barriers to care at for-profit methadone clinics in New Hampshire has thus far uncovered allegations by current employees, former employees, and patients of New Season, including:

1. Onerous Drug Screening Fees: Federal and state rules require regular drug screenings for all methadone patients. These screenings, however, often have high rates of false-positives, which is why Medicaid and Medicare cover the cost of confirmation testing. Patients with false positives could lose access to take-home doses of methadone, so instead of, for instance, a patient needing to drive to a clinic once a month, the patient might need to go every single day - which could jeopardize their job and recovery. Senator Hassan's letter today describes new allegations from whistleblowers that New Season partners with a laboratory that used contaminated equipment for testing. In addition, whistleblowers told Senator Hassan's office that New Season charges a $35 fee to every patient who wants a confirmation test after a positive drug screening, even if that fee is already covered by Medicaid or Medicare.
2. Signing Up Patients for Intensive Therapy Regardless of Need: Current and former employees have shared concerns that New Season pushes patients into intensive outpatient care programs - involving hours of therapy a week and generating more revenue for New Season - even when that level of care is not appropriate. New Season counselors were allegedly "voluntold" to enroll patients in intensive outpatient therapy, even though federal rules require patients to be stable enough to benefit from such programs.
3. Adding Barriers to Tablet Methadone: Methadone is most commonly dispensed in a liquid format, though a tablet format is available if that is what is best for the patient. In the middle of 2025, New Season's Concord location allegedly informed patients that they would need to get documentation from a primary care provider to continue to receive tablet methadone, or else they would be forced to switch to liquid methadone. This change prompted some patients to experience withdrawal symptoms after vomiting their medication, increasing their risk of relapse. The primary care provider requirement could also place an additional burden on patients in cases in which these individuals would need to find and meet with a new primary care provider just to get the methadone treatment that is already working for them.

Click here to read Senator Hassan's letter to New Season.

Senator Hassan's request issued today is the latest step in the overall investigation she launched in August 2025 into whether patients at for-profit methadone clinics - including New Season - encounter unnecessary barriers when seeking lifesaving methadone treatment for opioid addiction. In December, as part of this investigation, Senator Hassan launched a community survey learn about the experiences that Granite Staters have had with methadone clinics in New Hampshire.

Senator Hassan continues to work to combat the fentanyl crisis and expand access to evidence-based addiction treatment. Senator Hassan helped introduce the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act, bipartisan legislation to improve access to medication-assisted treatment by allowing more addiction specialists to prescribe methadone. In 2022, Senator Hassan successfully passed into law her bipartisan Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act to increase the number of medical professionals authorized to prescribe medication-assisted treatment.

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