143,997 Arizonans Got SUD Treatment Last Year. The Number That Worries Us Is the One Not in the Report.

On April 28, 2026, AHCCCS submitted its annual substance use treatment report for State Fiscal Year 2025 to Governor Katie Hobbs, as required under A.R.S. §36-2023. The topline: 143,997 AHCCCS members received at least one SUD treatment service during SFY2025, with the state spending $582,342,402 on SUD treatment services — Medicaid as the largest funding source, supplemented by the Substance Use Block Grant and federal discretionary funds.

62.2% of those members were in the Central GSA — Maricopa County and surrounding areas, which tracks with AHCCCS’s overall membership distribution but also reflects a persistent geographic concentration of services around Phoenix. The largest age cohort receiving treatment was 25–44, followed by 45–64.

These are real people getting real help, and the spending represents a genuine system investment. Arizona has $1.215 billion in opioid settlement funds incoming over 18 years — $526M to the state, $669M to counties — and the SOR IV grant from SAMHSA added another $34.8M for FY2026 prevention, treatment, and recovery work.

Here is what the report doesn’t say out loud: Arizona still ranks 49th out of 51 for behavioral health access. Fewer than 1 in 20 Arizonans with opioid use disorder receive medications like buprenorphine or methadone. The strategy document for Rize Recovery notes that more than five Arizonans die daily from opioid overdoses, and that youth overdose mortality in the state runs at twice the national average.

143,997 people treated against a backdrop where 48.5 million Americans have a SUD nationally and only about 15% receive any treatment — Arizona’s numbers, though significant, reflect that same brutal gap. The Central GSA concentration also means the report’s aggregate figures can obscure rural and tribal-area access, where a physical treatment facility may be the only option and waiting lists run months long.

The settlement funds and the SOR IV grant are real opportunities. They represent the most significant infusion of resources for behavioral health in Arizona’s history. What they require — and what the annual report, with its aggregate tallies, can’t guarantee — is that the money reaches people who aren’t already in the Maricopa County orbit of services.