Substance Abuse Expensive for Medicaid
Health Care Costs for People with Addictions Higher than Others
Jan 5, 2009
Substance abuse costs the Medicaid system hundreds of millions of dollars every year. A new study has shown that Medicaid recipients with substance abuse disorders cost the system hundreds of millions more than individuals who do not have the condition. Beyond the many costs of substance abuse to society and families, the disorder is a financial burden on the United States taxpayer supported Medicaid system.
A study of Medicaid records found that people with substance abuse disorders cost the Medicaid system hundreds of millions of dollars every year in medical care. Study authors suggested that early interventions for substance abuse could improve patient outcomes and would also save substantial amounts of money.
Study Finds that Medical Costs Higher for People with Substance Abuse Disorders
"Substance abuse probably costs Medicaid programs a lot more than they think," said Robin E. Clark, PhD, associate professor of family medicine & community health of the Center for Health Policy and Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "We found that the medical care costs for all health problems among those with substance abuse issues are quite significant, which means that there could be a huge cost savings if prevention or early treatment programs were started to improve the health of substance abusers."
Clark went on to say that the most striking finding was that as patients with substance abuse disorder got older their medical care costs increased at a far higher rate than behavioral health costs.
Substance Abuse Expensive for Medicaid
The study included people with substance abuse disorders in six states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey and Washington. Claims for Medicaid benefits for people with a behavioral health diagnose were compared for people who did and did not have substance abuse disorders.
The study found that in the six states that were studied, people with substance abuse disorders cost $104 million more for medical care and $105.5 million more for behavioral health care than people who did not have substance issues. If these numbers were extrapolated into the entire country the cost of people with substance abuse disorder could easily run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
People with Substance Abuse Disorder Higher Rate of Illness
Researchers said that possible explanation for the higher medical costs incurred by substance abuse disorder could include the generally higher prevalence of physical illness among older people, the accumulated health impact of long term substance abuse, reluctance among older adults to seek addiction treatment and chronic disease among older adults with addictions.
The comprehensive study examined the records of nearly 150,000 people in six states. The study, “the Impact of Substance Use Disorders on Medical Expenditures for Medicaid Beneficiaries with Behavioral Health Disorders” was published in the online edition of the journal Psychiatric Services and was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Substance Abuse Policy Research Program.
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