Substance abuse services are a significant sector of the health care economy, and are provided to a variety of populations. Much of this service sector consists of specialty providers who deliver care within systems apart from general health care. Other components are office-based physician practices and general hospitals. Unfortunately, there is no routine source of financing and expenditure information for substance abuse services similar to that for health services generally.
Recent work (Mark et al, 2000) has developed comprehensive mental health and substance abuse spending estimates, which estimated mental health treatment at $71 billion and substance abuse treatment spending at $11.4 billion for 1997. National per capita spending on SA was $43 in 1997, or $3.50 per resident in the U.S. per month. These estimates are consistent with estimates of national health expenditures by spending source produced annually by the Health Care Financing Administration, which capture the majority of substance abuse expenditures but do not break them out.
This analysis extends that work to rigorously analyze the age and gender distribution of spending on SA services. The presentation will describe the relative shares of total substance abuse services that are provided to children/adolescents and to women. It will provide estimates of the level of expenditures for these populations and the sources of funding for these expenditures. Finally, it will estimate the share that these substance abuse expenditures contribute to total health services for these groups.
Learning Objectives: After this presentation, the attendee will be able to
Keywords: Substance Abuse Treatment, Financing
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.