Do individuals with substance abuse diagnoses incur higher charges than individuals with other chronic conditions?
Concerns about high costs have led to limits on the services covered by most insurance plans for substance abuse treatment. But, the commonly used comparison group for cost analyses, all enrollees in a health-care plan, may not be appropriate because addiction is a chronic condition. Therefore, to determine whether substance abusers incur higher charges than patients with other serious chronic conditions, we used health insurance information for employees and dependents over 3 years (1989 to 1991) for two firms with a total of almost 40,000 employees to do alternate comparisons. We compared average annual charges for patients with the following diagnoses: substance abuse, substance abuse with mental illness, arthritis, asthma, and diabetes. Patients who undergo treatment for abusing alcohol, drugs, or both often (but not always) incur higher charges than people with other chronic conditions. Clear differences in average charges emerge between patients with and without mental health claims.
Garnick
D W
DW
Institute for Health Policy Studies, Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02254-9110, USA.
Hendricks
A M
AM
Comstock
C
C
Horgan
C
C
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001168:Arthritis / Q000191:economics; D001249:Asthma / Q000191:economics; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000191:economics; D005249:Fees and Charges; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics; D007358:Insurance, Psychiatric / Q000191:economics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017678:Sex Distribution; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000191:economics; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*