A new study by the Health Care Cost Institute shows that access to hospital inpatient substance use disorder treatment was up by 19.5% in 2011. Other findings of note include:
- inpatient substance use disorder admissions increased by more than 4 times from 2007-2011
- the average cost of inpatient SUD admission was $7230 and and $889 out of pocket cost for the consumer; average cost of a inpatient medical admission was $20,103 but the out of pocket cost for the consumer was $796
- total spending for mental health and substance use disorder treatment rose faster than for medical/surgical services
- out of pocket consumer spending for substance use disorder services increased at more than twice the rate for mental health treatment and medical/surgical services, which may be due to increase use of services
UPDATE: Howard Goldman responds to the claim that MHPAEA implementation will increase utilization costs in the Health Affairs.