Cost of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment in Health Care Settings.

AIMS: This study analyzed service unit and annual costs of substance abuse screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs implemented in emergency department (ED), inpatient, and outpatient medical settings in three U.S. states and one tribal organization. METHODS: Unit costs and annual costs were estimated from the perspective of service providers. Data for unit costs came from 26 performance sites, and data for annual costs came from 10 programs. A bottom-up approach was used to derive unit costs and included labor, space, and materials used in each SBIRT activity. Activities included direct SBIRT services and activities that support direct service delivery. Labor time spent in each activity was collected by trained observers using a time-and-motion approach. A top-down approach used cost questionnaires completed by program administrators to calculate annual costs and included labor, space, contracted services, overhead, training, travel, equipment, and supplies and materials. Costs were estimated in 2012 U.S. dollars. RESULTS: Average unit costs for prescreening, screening, brief intervention, brief treatment, and referral to treatment were $0.61, $6.59, $10.48, $22.63, and $12.06 in ED; $0.86, $6.33, $9.07, $27.61, and $8.03 in inpatient; and $0.84, $3.98, $7.81, $27.94, and $9.23 in outpatient settings, respectively; over half of the costs were attributable to support activities. Across all settings, the average cost to provide SBIRT per positive screen, for 1year, was about $400. CONCLUSIONS: Support activities comprise a large proportion of costs. Health administrators can use the results to budget and compare how much sites are reimbursed for SBIRT to how much services actually cost.

Infrastructure Change Is Not Enough: An Evaluation of SAMHSA's Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grants.

OBJECTIVE: The authors evaluated the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's mental health transformation state incentive grant program, which provided more than $100 million to nine states to make infrastructure changes designed to improve services and outcomes. METHODS: The authors measured infrastructure changes, service changes, and consumer outcomes in the nine programs. Although the federal program had no logic model, the authors adopted a model that hypothesized positive, but small, correlations between the program elements. RESULTS: There were few statistically significant correlations and a number of negative correlations between infrastructure changes, service changes, and consumer outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Federal investments should take into account evidence that infrastructure changes alone do not necessarily contribute to better consumer outcomes, support operationally defined infrastructure improvements, require that service improvements accompany infrastructure changes, and provide sufficient resources to oversee grantee behaviors. In addition, future evaluation should support evaluation best practices.

Utilization, measurement, and funding of recovery supports and services.

An environmental survey was conducted regarding substance abuse recovery supports and services (RSS) delivered across California, where these services are offered, and by whom. Inquiries were made regarding RSS measurement efforts, funding mechanisms, and technical assistance needs. A survey was disseminated to all 57 administrators of county alcohol and other drug or behavioral departments. Results indicate that 62% (23 of 37) of responding counties offer RSS. Overall, certified addiction counselors (CACs) were the staff most utilized to provide RSS, followed by peers, clinicians, and volunteers. Among recovery-community organizations (RCOs), peers, volunteers, and CACs were the most utilized staff. Sober living homes were the most prevalent type of RCO, followed by recovery centers, faith-based/recovery ministries, and recovery schools. Forty-five percent of counties reported funding RSS; 37.8% collect data. RSS may provide valuable support services for individuals recovering from alcohol/drug use; however, the field must further define RSS and develop measurement strategies to justify RSS funding.

A profile of the substance abuse treatment industry: organization, costs, and treatment completion.

Nationally representative data from the Alcohol and Drug Services Study, conducted between 1996 and 1999, are used to explore the structure and operation of the substance user treatment industry in the United States. The empirical relationship among client (N=4945) retention and completion, types and use of counseling and medical personnel, diagnostic mix, client demographics, the level of services used, and the cost of treatment in different treatment settings is discussed using tabular presentation and tests of significance. Limitations of the analysis are outlined. This information and analysis are expected to help the research community understand the potential of the ADSS data in addressing many important questions about substance user treatment.

Biomedicalization and alcohol studies: implications for policy.

The reduction of alcohol problems to genetic and biological processes is not new; however, biomedicalization is progressively dominating how alcohol issues are viewed in the U.S. This paper illustrates the process of biomedicalization in the alcohol field by examining: 1) the organizational move of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to the National Institutes of Health in 1992; 2) the emphasis on biomedical goals in NIAAA's five-year Strategic Plan; 3) increased NIAAA funding of biomedical research from 1990-2002; and, 4) trends in the growing proportion of biomedical information provided in NIAAA's Reports to Congress. The implications of this dominance of the biomedical approach on policy are profound. As biomedicalization prevails as a dominant lens by which alcohol problems are framed, policymakers will tend to move towards individualistic solutions to social problems. Broader community and societal based efforts to understand and control alcohol problems may be increasingly replaced by a focus on individuals thereby omitting important environmental factors.

The CSAT methamphetamine treatment program: research design accommodations for "real world" application.

The Methamphetamine Treatment Program (MTP), funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, has the objectives of implementing the Matrix outpatient model and evaluating that model in comparison to the existing community "treatments as usual." Seven organizations in three western states (California, Montana, and Hawaii) were selected to participate in this randomized, controlled, multisite project in what constitutes the largest trial to date of treatment for methamphetamine (MA) dependence. One hundred fifty MA-dependent patients recruited at each site are randomly assigned to receive either the Matrix model, a manualized program of intensive outpatient treatment, or the site's standard treatment, "treatment as usual." Participants are evaluated at admission, weekly during treatment, at the time of scheduled discharge, and at six and 12 months after admission. Dependent measures assess changes in drug use, HIV risk behaviors, quality of life, and patient satisfaction. Cost analyses to quantify treatment costs and determine the association between costs and clinical outcomes will be conducted. A number of adjustments in the original study design have been necessitated by the realities of community sites' strengths and limitations. Experiences from this multisite project will also provide a model for other efforts to transfer research-based treatments into community settings. This article describes the main aims of the project, the background and rationale for the study design, a brief description of the research plan, and methods implemented to protect the integrity of the science.

A multisite study of the effectiveness of methamphetamine treatment: an initiative of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

In 1998, responding to national and regional epidemiological data indicating that methamphetamine (MA) abuse was a growing problem in the United States, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) initiated a multisite MA treatment study. Through a collaborative approach among CSAT, seven treatment sites, and a coordinating center, the study compares the clinical and cost effectiveness of a manualized, cognitive-behavioral outpatient treatment developed by the Matrix Center in Los Angeles to the treatment approaches currently employed by the treatment sites. The study also explores technology transfer issues associated with integrating the Matrix approach within existing treatment settings. CSAT's approach to the initiation and management of this type of study is discussed.

Grant award to the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Department of Health and Social Services, State of Alaska. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), HHS. Availability of grant funds for the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Department of Health and Social Services, State of Alaska.

This notice is to inform the public that CSAT and CMHS are making available approximately $5,000,000 for an award in FY 1999 to the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Department of Health and Social Services, State of Alaska to support development, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive, seamless system of care for persons with co-occurring substance abuse (including alcohol and other drugs) and mental health disorders in Anchorage, Alaska, and its environs. CSAT and CMHS will make this award if the application is recommended for approval by the Initial Review Group and the CSAT and CMHS National Advisory Councils. This is not a formal request for applications; assistance will be provided only to the Alaska Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. Eligibility for this program is limited to the State of Alaska, as specified in Congressional report language, in recognition of primacy of its responsibility for, and interest in, providing for the needs of its citizens, and because the success of the program will depend upon the authority and ability to broadly coordinate the variety of resources essential for full program success. The State has committed itself to moving certain mental health services from their extant institutional bases to community bases, and, simultaneously, changing from parallel systems of service delivery--for substance abuse and mental health problems--to an approach designed to deliver services seamlessly to persons with comorbidity. Alaska needs a high level of systemic competence in delivering these services due, in great part, to its climate (resulting in deaths of homeless comorbid persons), and to the requirements of its proposed systems changes. The proposed project presents a unique opportunity for SAMHSA and its Centers to learn, first hand, how the transition from parallel systems to a seamless system of care can be accomplished in a small city in a rural/frontier State, and at what costs. The project promises to yield learnings on the factors and circumstances that facilitate and/or retard systemic change in complex treatment systems. This "Anchorage Comorbidity Services" project is also part of SAMHSA's commitment to improving services, and relates directly to the resolution unanimously adopted by its National Advisory Council earlier this year. Funding from CSAT and CMHS will support some services to persons with co-occurring disorders; continuing planning, review, management, and infrastructure development for the effort; and a tripartite evaluation of the project, including process, outcome, and impact evaluations. This is a unique opportunity to evaluate significant change in a State system of care for persons with co-occurring disorders.