Study: Treatment Saves
Medicaid Funds

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Medicaid patients who received addiction treatment experienced a 30 percent decrease in their overall medical costs under the program, according to a new study from researchers at Kaiser Permanente.
Dr. Lawrence Walter and colleagues in Kaiser’s Division of Research compared a group of 197 Medicaid patients with a group of non-Medicaid patients. Each group was tracked for one year before and three years after receiving addiction treatment at Kaiser’s Vallejo Chemical Dependency Recovery Program in Oakland, Calif. They found that patients who received treatment through a managed behavioral health program saw their Medicaid costs fall from an average of $5,402 per year to an average of $3,627 per year. The researchers also calculated that Medicaid patients with substance use disorders had medical costs that were 60 percent higher than non- Medicaid patients prior to entering treatment.

“Previous studies have shown similar reductions in health care costs as a result of providing substance abuse treatment, but this study also showed that the reductions in medical costs are across all areas, including hospital stays, visits to the emergency room, and medical clinics,” said Dr. Walter, adding that “The reductions in cost are not because of a shift in costs from one area to another.”

The study, which was funded by the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation, is reported in the July 2005 issue of the Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research.

Addictions Quotes

• A staggering 63 percent of Americans say that addiction to alcohol or other drugs has had an impact on them at some point in their lives. Patrick J. Kennedy
• It is a national tragedy that 150,000 of our fellow Americans died last year as a direct result of chemical addiction. Jim Ramstad
• Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism. Carl G. Jung

Treatment Admissions Involving Narcotic Painkillers: 2002 Update

Treatment Admissions Involving Narcotic Painkillers: 2002 Update
In Brief

• Between 1992 and 2002, treatment admission rates for abuse of narcotic painkillers more than doubled
• The proportion of new users of narcotic painkillers (those entering treatment within 3 years of beginning use) increased from 26 percent in 1997 to 39 percent in 2002
  Between 1997 and 2002, the number of treatment admissions involving narcotic painkillers increased for all ages, especially among people aged 20 to 30
• Admissions to treatment involving the abuse of narcotic painkillers made up a small proportion-about 4 percent-of the 1.9 million admissions reported to the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) in 2002. However, these treatment admissions have increased in publicly funded substance abuse treatment facilities across the nation during the last few years.
• In 2002, there were about 84,000 admissions to treatment where the primary, secondary, or tertiary substance of abuse was a narcotic painkiller. In about half of these admissions, narcotic painkillers represented the primary substance of abuse.2 In the other half of these 84,000 admissions, abuse of narcotic painkillers was secondary to abuse of another substance, generally alcohol or heroin. The number of treatment admissions in which narcotic painkillers were involved was relatively stable between 1992 and 1997, but increased between 1997 and 2002 (Figure 1). In 1992, the treatment admission rate for narcotic painkiller abuse in the United States was 14 admissions per 100,000 persons aged 12 or older.3 By 2002, it had increased to 35 admissions per 100,000, more than doubling the rate since 1992.

http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k4/painTX/painTX.htm

Survey of Inmates in Local Jails

Substance Dependence, Abuse, and Treatment of Jail Inmates, 2002
Presents data from the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails on inmates’ prior use, dependence, and abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs. The report also provides data on types of substance abuse treatment or other programs reported by jail inmates. It presents measures of dependence and abuse by gender, race, Hispanic origin, age, and most serious offense. The report compares the levels of prior substance use, dependence, abuse, and treatment by selected characteristics, such as family background, criminal record, type of substance, and offense. Tables include trends in the levels of substance use and treatment reported by jail inmates since the last national survey was conducted in 1996.
Highlights include the following:
In 2002 --
68% of jail inmates reported symptoms in the year before their admission to jail that met substance dependence or abuse criteria.
16% of convicted jail inmates said that they committed their offense to get money for drugs.
63% of inmates who met substance dependence or abuse criteria had participated in substance treatment or other programs.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/sdatji02.htm