Medicaid expansion initiative in Massachusetts: enrollment among substance-abusing homeless adults.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

We assessed whether homeless adults entering substance abuse treatment in Massachusetts were less likely than others to enroll in Medicaid after implementation of the MassHealth Medicaid expansion program in 1997.

Methods

We used interrupted time-series analysis in data on substance abuse treatment admissions from the Treatment 0Episode Data Set (1992-2009) to evaluate Medicaid coverage rates in Massachusetts and to identify whether trends differed between homeless and housed participants. We also compared Massachusetts data with data from 17 other states and the District of Columbia combined.

Results

The percentage of both homeless and housed people entering treatment with Medicaid increased approximately 21% after expansion (P = .01), with an average incr

SUBMITTER: Zur J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3828691 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature