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Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Trends
March 2017
Behavioral health and substance abuse treatment costs are rising, along with demand for these services, driven in part by the opioid abuse epidemic. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration projects that by 2020, mental health and substance abuse (MHSA) treatment spending will total $280.5 billion, a 63% increase from 2009.* Increasing utilization of substance abuse services reveals an opportunity to expand treatment and prevention programs in-house or through partnerships. In addition, hospitals and health systems can respond to these rising costs and greater need by ensuring opioid prescribing patterns meet current guidelines and by instituting care management assistance when pain medications are necessary.
The Truven Health Analytics™ study of 30-day readmission rates uses Medicare Hospital Compare data to analyze differences in readmission rates among hospitals across the nation. Aggressive efforts are being made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, private health plans, and providers to reduce unplanned hospital readmissions. This study examines 30-day hospital readmission rates from 2011 to 2015. Rates of 30-day unplanned readmissions have improved consistently during the five-year period.
Cardiovascular care affects hundreds of thousands of patients annually and adds billions of dollars to overall U.S. healthcare costs. The Truven Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study uses a national scorecard of metrics to identify the nation's highest-performing cardiovascular services lines. If all cardiovascular providers performed at the level of the study’s 50 top performers, approximately 9,100 additional lives and $1.4 billion could be saved. More than 6,100 additional bypass and percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) patients' care could be complication-free.
As health systems transition from volume to value, a growing number of appendectomy, mastectomy, and thyroid procedures are shifting to outpatient facilities. However, when these procedures are performed as inpatient surgeries, patients’ average length of stay (ALOS) is increasing, implying that more severe cases are handled in hospitals, and likely will remain there. Hospitals should consider future demand and volume for these surgery services, capacity for an increase in hospital outpatient volume, and staffing and operational implications.
