# The Impact of Medicaid Plans on Access to and Quality of SUD Treatment

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $528,111

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Medicaid, the largest health insurance sector in the U.S., with the most vulnerable individuals, is the least-
well understood. There is little research on the effects of the structure of state Medicaid programs on access,
patterns of care and outcomes of substance use disorder (SUD) care. States provide Medicaid benefits either
through publicly managed Fee-for-Service (FFS) systems or by contracting with private Medicaid Managed
Care (MMC) plans. Despite widespread adoption of MMC, its role is not well-understood, especially its effects
on SUD treatment and service disparities. Little is known about any differences in SUD treatment between
traditional FFS Medicaid and private MMC plans or differences across different types of managed care plans
with different approaches to SUD treatment. The proposed study makes use of innovative random assignment
methods to address this challenge in the Medicaid sector. In the proposed project, we apply a select group of
metrics for assessing access, patterns of care and outcomes of SUD treatment, to describe the performance of
systems, health plans, and provider groups in New York. We then conduct stratified analysis by race/ethnicity,
gender, and rurality to identify which programs and plans have better outcomes and identify if there are service
disparities. Our project uses qualitative methods to help interpret our results through in-depth interviews, and to
provide insight on the interpretation of findings and suggest practice and policy changes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9906863
- **Project number:** 5R01DA044526-03
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** MARGARITA ALEGRIA
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $528,111
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2021-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9906863

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9906863, The Impact of Medicaid Plans on Access to and Quality of SUD Treatment (5R01DA044526-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9906863. Licensed CC0.

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