Early Interventions Could Save Medicaid Millions

Tuesday January 6, 2009

Early intervention for substance abuse could not only improve the health of aging Americans, but could save Medicaid millions of dollars in medical costs, according to a new study from the Center for Health Policy and Research. Older people with substance abuse problems have medical expenses that increase at a far higher rate than behavioral health costs, the study found.

The findings were the result of an examination of the medical records of 148,457 people in six states.

"Substance abuse probably costs Medicaid programs a lot more than they think," said Robin E. Clark, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in a news release. "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."

The study looked at records from 148,457 people in Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, and Washington in 1999. The six states alone paid $104 million more for medical care for people with substance abuse disorders and $105.5 million more for behavioral health care than for those patients who did not have an alcohol or drug abuse diagnosis.

The study found that 29 percent of the Medicaid patients were diagnosed with substance abuse disorders in the six states, ranging from a low of 16.1% in Arkansas to 39.6% in Washington.

Greater Medical Costs

The study gave the following possible reasons for the higher medical costs for substance abusers:

The prevalence of physical illness among older people
The cumulative health impact of long-term substance abuse
Reluctance among older adults to seek addiction treatment in specialty settings
More severe chronic disease among older adults with addictions

The researchers said improved treatment for older people with substance abuse problems could greatly reduce medical costs in the long run, but there are few programs aimed at that group.

"It suggests that there are not a lot of substance abuse services that successfully target the older age group, and that there could be substantial savings and health benefits by focusing on these populations," Clark said.

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