The Affordable Care Act: an opportunity for improving care for substance use disorders?
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will greatly increase coverage for treatment of substance use disorders. To realize the benefits of this opportunity, it is critical to develop reliable, valid, and feasible measures of quality to ensure that treatment is accessible and of high quality. The authors review the availability of current quality measures for substance use disorder treatment and conclude there is a pressing need for development, validation, and use of quality measures. They provide recommendations for research and policy changes to increase the likelihood that patients, families, and society benefit from the increased coverage provided by the ACA.
Dr. Watkins, Mr. De Vries, and Dr. Hepner are with the Santa Monica location and Dr. Farmer is with the Pittsburgh location of the RAND Corporation (e-mail: kwatkins@rand.org ).
Katherine E
KE
Watkins
Carrie M
CM
Farmer
David
D
De Vries
Kimberly A
KA
Hepner
D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D014481:United States