Effects of Global Payment and Accountable Care on Medication Treatment for Alcohol and Opioid Use Disorders.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The Alternative Quality Contract (AQC) implemented in 2009 by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) is intended to improve quality and control costs by putting providers at risk for total medical spending and tying payment to performance on specified quality measures. We examined the AQC's early effects on use of and spending on medication treatment (MT) for addiction among individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and opioid use disorders (OUDs), conditions not subject to any performance measurement in the AQC.

Methods

Using data from 2006 to 2011, we use difference-in-difference estimation of the effect of the AQC on MT using a comparison group of enrollees in BCBSMA whose providers did not participate in the AQC. We compared AQC and non-AQC enrol

SUBMITTER: Donohue JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5786473 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan/Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature