In the January issue of Health Affairs, Caroline King of Oregon Health & Science University and her team of coauthors examine the accessibility of residential treatment facilities for adolescents with substance use disorders (SUD).
After analyzing 160 residential addiction treatment facilities that treated adolescents with opioid use disorder, the authors determined that nearly 40 percent had no beds immediately available or offered a waitlist, and “sixty-five facilities estimated the number of days until a bed opened, with a mean wait time of 28.4 days.”
Approximately 57 percent of adolescent facilities examined accepted Medicaid, including 19.8 percent of for-profit facilities and 83 percent of nonprofits.
The researchers also found that half of facilities required up-front payment for self-pay patients, and that the mean up-front cost was $28,731.
King and coauthors conclude that access to adolescent residential addiction treatment centers is costly and unevenly distributed.
