What is SAMHSA Doing to Help Communities Make Good Decisions About the Allocation of Scarce Treatment Resources?
Abstract
Communities need information to assess what treatment resources are in place, the cost of those resources, and how those resources are performing. This is a very complicated process as a single individual may utilize services from a variety of systems. For example, a single person may be enrolled in drug treatment, may be getting treatment for depression at a community mental health center, may be on Medicaid, and could be involved with a criminal justice diversion program. Each system contacted by that individual keeps its own records in its own separate database. To understand the coordinated cost of services utilized by a given individual requires a single database integrating information from multiple systems. Recently, in partnership with the states of Oklahoma, Washington, and Delaware, SAMHSA developed a database system capable of merging cost and utilization information from Medicaid, mental health, and substance abuse systems. This integrated database system represents an important step forward in that it overcomes significant technical obstacles and recognizes the multitude of agencies and resources that must be coordinated to evaluate service delivery.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA381736
Entities
People
- Maetin Y. Iguchi
Organizations
- RAND Corporation