Medicaid rates and substance abuse disorder treatment

Higher Medicaid payments for substance abuse disorder treatment lead to better access to such treatment, a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded. According to the study, which focused on six states, State officials and SUD [substance abuse disorders] providers in the selected states with larger rate changes reported greater effects on SUD service availability compared to those in states with smaller changes. For example, state officials said that larger rate increases helped increase the number of SUD providers participating in Medicaid, but did not generally note SUD service availability effects for smaller rate increases.  Providers in [...]