Performance Metrics of Substance Use Disorder Care Among Medicaid Enrollees in New York, New York

Question How do Medicaid managed care (MMC) plans compare in terms of covering substance use disorder (SUD) treatment across indicators of access, quality, and outcomes in New York, New York? Findings In this cross-sectional study of administrative records from 159 016 adult Medicaid recipients who did not choose a plan and who could be regarded as randomly assigned across plans, engagement in SUD treatment was low across all plans. There was significant expenditure variation among plans, with several plans with low spending on SUD services, and outcomes differed little across plans, with low performance. Meaning The study findings suggest a need for improved monitoring of the performance of Medicaid private plans. This cross-sectional study examines the performance of Medicaid managed care plans across 19 indicators of access, quality, and outcomes of substance use disorder treatment. Importance There is limited evaluation of the performance of Medicaid managed care (MMC) private plans in covering substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. Objective To compare the performance of MMC plans across 19 indicators of access, quality, and outcomes of SUD treatment. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study used administrative claims and mandatory assignment to plans of up to 159 016 adult Medicaid recipients residing in 1 of the 5 counties (boroughs) of New York, New York, from January 2009 to December 2017 to identify differences in SUD treatment access, patterns, and outcomes among different types of MMC plans. Data from the latest years were received from the New York State Department of Health in October 2019, and analysis began soon thereafter. Approximately 17% did not make an active choice of plan, and a subset of these (approximately 4%) can be regarded as randomly assigned. Exposures Plan assignment. Main Outcomes and Measures Percentage of the enrollees achieving performance measures across 19 indicators of access, process, and outcomes of SUD treatment. Results Medicaid claims data from 159 016 adults (mean [SD] age, 35.9 [12.7] years; 74 261 women [46.7%]; 8746 [5.5%] Asian, 73 783 [46.4%] Black, and 40 549 [25.5%] White individuals) who were auto assigned to an MMC plan were analyzed. Consistent with national patterns, all plans achieved less than 50% (range, 0%-62.1%) on most performance measures. Across all plans, there were low levels of treatment engagement for alcohol (range, 0%-0.4%) and tobacco treatment (range, 0.8%-7.2%), except for engagement for opioid disorder treatment (range, 41.5%-61.4%). For access measures, 4 of the 9 plans performed significantly higher than the mean on recognition of an SUD diagnosis, any service use for the first time, and tobacco use screening. Of the process measures, total monthly expenditures on SUD treatment was the only measure for which plans differed significantly from the mean. Outcome measures differed little across plans. Conclusions and Relevance The results of this cross-sectional study suggest the need for progress in engaging patients in SUD treatment and improvement in the low performance of SUD care and limited variation in MMC plans in New York, New York. Improvement in the overall performance of SUD treatment in Medicaid potentially depends on general program improvements, not moving recipients among plans.