Issue 36 | 2006 |
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The National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) is an annual survey of all known facilities in the United States, both public and private, that provide substance abuse treatment. In 2005, 1,069 (8 percent) of the 13,371 substance abuse treatment facilities that responded to N-SSATS operated an Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.1 Certified programs provide medication-assisted therapy in the treatment of addiction to opiates such as heroin, oxycodone, or hydrocodone. Currently, methadone2 and buprenorphine3 are the only opioid medications approved for the treatment of opioid addiction.
In 2005, of the facilities operating OTPs, approximately two thirds (67 percent) served OTP clients exclusively, and these facilities accounted for 81 percent of all OTP clients.4, 5 Facilities may offer more than one type of care, but most facilities with OTPs (92 percent) offered outpatient care, while 11 percent offered hospital inpatient care, and 9 percent offered non-hospital residential care.6
For this report, facilities with a certified OTP were classified into three categories based on the programs offered: maintenance-only programs,7 detoxification-only programs,8 and OTPs with both maintenance and detoxification programs. In 2005, close to two fifths (37 percent) of facilities with OTPs operated maintenance-only programs, and 8 percent operated detoxification-only programs, but the majority (55 percent) had OTPs with both maintenance and detoxification programs (Figure 1). Almost three quarters (74 percent) of facilities operating a maintenance-only program treated OTP clients exclusively, and 71 percent of OTPs operating both maintenance and detoxification programs treated OTP clients exclusively. Only 12 percent of facilities operating a detoxification-only OTP treated OTP clients exclusively.
Source: 2005 SAMHSA National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS). |
Type of Program | Percent |
---|---|
Maintenance Only | 37% |
Detoxification Only | 8% |
Both Maintenance and Detoxification | 55% |
Source: 2005 SAMHSA National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS). |
OTPs with a detoxification-only program were more likely to be operated by a private non-profit organization (66 percent) than OTPs with a maintenance-only program (47 percent) or OTPs with both maintenance and detoxification programs (35 percent) (Figure 2).9 OTPs with both maintenance and detoxification programs were more likely to be operated by a private for-profit organization (54 percent) than OTPs with a maintenance-only program (37 percent) or a detoxification-only program (20 percent).
Among the OTP clients in methadone treatment on March 31, 2005, nearly half (47 percent) were in OTPs operated by private for-profit organizations, 40 percent were in OTPs operated by private non-profit organizations, and 13 percent were in government operated OTPs.
Source: 2005 SAMHSA National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS). |
Type of Program | Private, For-Profit | Private, Non-Profit | State/Local/Federal/Tribal Government |
---|---|---|---|
Maintenance Only | 37% | 47% | 16% |
Detoxification Only | 20% | 66% | 14% |
Both Maintenance and Detoxification | 54% | 35% | 11% |
Source: 2005 SAMHSA National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS). |
Among OTP clients, most were receiving methadone treatment (235,836 clients) in contrast to the small number receiving buprenorphine treatment (1,165 clients) (Table 1).10, 11 Overall, the majority of clients receiving methadone treatment (59 percent) were in OTPs with both maintenance and detoxification programs, 40 percent were receiving treatment in maintenance-only programs, and 1 percent were receiving treatment in detoxification-only programs.
Type of Program | Methadone | Buprenorphine | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Percent of Clients | Total Number of Clients | Median Number of Clients per Facility | Percent of Clients | Total Number of Clients | Median Number of Clients per Facility | |
Total | 100% | 235,836 | 199 | 100% | 1,165 | 5 |
Maintenance Only | 40% | 95,058 | 230 | 25% | 288 | 5 |
Detoxification Only | 1% | 2,131 | 10 | 10% | 112 | 4 |
Both Maintenance and Detoxification | 59% | 138,647 | 205 | 65% | 765 | 5 |
Source: 2005 SAMHSA National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS). |
OTPs with detoxification-only programs were more likely to accept Medicaid (80 percent) than OTPs with a maintenance-only program (66 percent) or those with both maintenance and detoxification programs (63 percent) (Table 2). OTPs operating detoxification-only programs were also more likely to accept State-financed health insurance (54 percent) than maintenance-only programs (30 percent) or OTPs with both maintenance and detoxification programs (25 percent).
Facilities with OTPs that were operated by private non-profit organizations were more likely to accept Medicaid payments (88 percent) than facilities operated by governmental organizations (64 percent) or private for-profit organizations (43 percent) (Table 2). Similarly, facilities with OTPs that were operated by private non-profit organizations were more likely to use a sliding scale for payment (79 percent) than those OTPs operated by the government (66 percent) or by private for-profit organizations (30 percent). Government operated facilities with OTPs were slightly more likely to accept private health insurance (67 percent) than were facilities with OTPs operated by private non-profit organizations (63 percent) or facilities with OTPs operated by private for-profit organizations (41 percent).
Type of Payment Accepted* | Type of Program | Facility Operation | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Maintenance Only | Detoxification Only | Both Maintenance and Detoxification | Government | Private For-Profit | Private Non-Profit | |
Cash or Self-Payment | 95 | 96 | 98 | 83 | 100 | 98 |
Medicaid | 66 | 80 | 63 | 64 | 43 | 88 |
Medicare | 29 | 66 | 31 | 39 | 22 | 43 |
State-financed Health Insurance | 30 | 54 | 25 | 34 | 21 | 37 |
Federal Military Insurance | 19 | 59 | 15 | 43 | 9 | 26 |
Private Health Insurance | 48 | 93 | 51 | 67 | 41 | 63 |
No Payment Accepted | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Other | 2 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
Uses Sliding Fee Scale | 56 | 42 | 57 | 66 | 30 | 79 |
* Facilities may accept more than one type of payment. |
The Drug and Alcohol Services Information System
(DASIS) is an integrated data system maintained by the Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA). One component of DASIS is the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), an annual survey of all facilities
in the United States, both public and private, that provide substance abuse treatment. N-SSATS was formerly known as the Uniform Facility Data
Set (UFDS). Access the latest TEDS reports at: |
The DASIS Report is published periodically by the Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission from SAMHSA. Additional copies of this report or other reports from the Office of Applied Studies are available on-line: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov. Citation of the source is appreciated. For questions about this report please e-mail: shortreports@samhsa.hhs.gov |
This page was last updated on December 30, 2008. |
SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.
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