COSIG CONFERENCE BROCHURE.pdf - Drexel University College ...

COSIG Co-Occurring Disorders Conference, Hershey PA, May 15-17, 2006
Cost of Treatment
• Estimated to be over 100 billion dollars a
year.
• Those with alcohol disorders are among
the highest cost users of medical care in
the U.S.
• For those who underwent treatment—their
mean monthly medical care costs declined
immediately after treatment and continued
to decline 2 years following treatment.
Reimbursement Issues
• Only a small minority of those who needed
treatment have received it.
• Medicare programs are turned over to
managed care companies (Medicare used
to cover 12 days of inpatient services but
managed care eliminated coverage and
cut services altogether to keep costs
down).
Areas for Future Research
• Life course variations among alcohol, illicit drug
and prescription drug use patterns.
• Gender and ethnic variability
• Reasons for changes in drinking and drug use
patterns with aging.
• Early/Late onset of the Problem
• Valid screening instruments
• Under representation of older adults in treatment
settings
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