title: Public managed care and service access in outpatient substance abuse treatment units.
abstract: The continued growth of public managed behavioral health care has raised concerns about possible effects on services provided. This study uses a national sample of outpatient substance abuse treatment units surveyed in 2005 to examine associations between public managed care and service access, measured as both the types of services provided and the amount of treatment received by clients. The percentage of clients funded through public managed care versus other types of public funding was positively associated with treatment units' odds of providing some types of resource-intensive services and with the odds of providing transportation to clients, but was negatively associated with the average number of individual therapy sessions clients received over the course of treatment. In general, public managed care does not appear to restrict access to outpatient substance abuse treatment, although states should monitor these contracts to ensure clients receive adequate courses of individual treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Behavioral and Community Studies, 13301 Bruce B Downs Blvd, Tampa, FL 33612-3807, USA. echuang@usf.edu
authors.forename: Emmeline
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Alexander
mesh_terms: D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000191:economics*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics; D010045:Outpatients; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000191:economics*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D014481:United States