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Among Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities, Managed Care Causes For-Profits to Offer Additional Services and Public Facilities to Offer Fewer Services, Olmstead and Sindelar Find
Managed care causes for-profit substance abuse treatment (SAT) facilities to offer approximately four additional services to clients while causing public SAT facilities to offer approximately four fewer services, report Todd Olmstead, Associate Research Scientist, and Jody Sindelar, Professor of Public Health, both of the Yale School of Public Health’s Division of Health Policy and Administration in Health Services Research. The differential impact between for-profit and public facilities is concentrated in the service areas of therapy/counseling, medical testing, and transitional services. The researchers noted that their findings raise concerns that managed care may reduce the quality of care provided at public SAT facilities. However, they also noted that managed care increases the number of services offered by for-profit SAT facilities. “Because for-profit SAT facilities have traditionally offered the narrowest range of services and public SAT facilities the widest,” says Sindelar, “one explanation for the differential impact of managed care is that it standardizes service offerings across ownership types.” According to Olmstead, “Managed care’s impact on services offered by SAT facilities is an important issue because an emphasis on cost-containment could reduce treatment effectiveness and thus increase the costs of substance abuse borne by abusers and society.” The researchers’ findings are particularly noteworthy because range of services offered is a key measure of treatment effectiveness. The researchers called for additional research to increase understanding of how managed care affects substance abuse treatment, and the net impact of that effect on society.
Citation: Health Services Research, Online Publication: July 17, 2005 –Story by Christy Gordon |
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