Research Brief
Without Quality Measures, Increasing Access to Substance Use Treatment May Not Improve Patient Outcomes
Jan 16, 2015
The ACA expands coverage for substance use treatment, but provides no measures for assessing its quality.
An Opportunity for Improving Care for Substance Use Disorders?
Published In: Psychiatric Services, v. 66, no. 3, Mar. 2015, p. 310-312
Posted on RAND.org on December 08, 2014
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.
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