# Substance use disorder treatment centers and facility ownership changes

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $49,799

## Abstract

Project Summary
An estimated 40.3 million adults and adolescents needed treatment for substance use disorders in 2020. Yet
only 6.5% of those needing treatment received it. Access to high-quality care remains a significant challenge.
In the past decade, private equity (PE) firms have acquired numerous substance use disorder (SUD) treatment
facilities, although evidence on the extent of these acquisitions is scarce. SUD treatment centers are attractive
targets for private equity acquisition due to increased need for SUD treatment, increased health insurance
coverage, and expansions in coverage of SUD treatments, all of which increase demand for treatment.
Opportunities for efficiencies due to the fragmented nature of the market and changes to regulations regarding
buprenorphine prescribing have the potential to increase profits. Commentators have raised concerns that a
focus on short term profits may lead to quality declines in private equity-acquired facilities. Similar acquisitions
in other areas of health care have resulted in declines in quality and increases in mortality. In this supplement,
we will, for the first time, comprehensively catalog and describe Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) acquisitions
by private equity investors from 2013-2022. This supplement would fund a predoctoral candidate for 10 months
to examine the effects of private equity specifically in opioid treatment programs. The proposed project will first
describe the number, trends and geographic distribution of PE acquisitions of Opioid Treatment Programs a
subset of SUD treatment facilities. We will also include information on PE-backed newly established OTPs
(Aim 1). We will then assess whether these acquisitions are associated with changes in measures of Medicaid-
financed methadone treatment quantity and quality at acquired OTPs, relative to non-acquired OTPs (Aim 2).
The proposed Mentorship Plan includes a mentorship team consisting of researchers with expertise in health
policy and economics, addiction medicine and Medicaid policy. Goals of the Career Development Plan include
enhancing research knowledge of state Medicaid reimbursement policy, Medicaid claims analysis, and
addiction medicine. Goals will be achieved through the proposed supplement research and professional
development activities: successful execution of project milestones, didactic training, internal work-in-progress
presentations, formal external presentations, and mentorship and interactions with co-investigators of the
parent award. The proposed supplement plan will facilitate the candidate’s transition to a faculty position as an
addiction policy researcher.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11086406
- **Project number:** 3R01DA057789-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Susan H Busch
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $49,799
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2023-04-01 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11086406

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11086406, Substance use disorder treatment centers and facility ownership changes (3R01DA057789-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11086406. Licensed CC0.

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