Identifying and Characterizing Models of Substance Use Treatment in Outpatient Substance Use Treatment Facilities

Given that individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) have a variety of needs beyond substance use, it is crucial to examine the comprehensiveness of services offered within outpatient SUD treatment facilities, where many individuals with SUDs receive care. This study's objective is to develop clusters of services offered and assess organizational, policy, and environmental characteristics associated with having a more comprehensive treatment model.

We conducted a principal component analysis (PCA) using data on SUD treatment facilities (n = 8,197) from the 2022 Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Tracking Repository, a national database of SUD treatment facilities. We applied a k-means cluster analysis on the generated components to cluster facilities by service offerings and calculated the mean for different organizational, policy, and environmental characteristics for each cluster.

We retained five components from the PCA, which represented the availability of different services (Pharmacotherapies, Infectious Disease and Harm Reduction, Supportive and Social Determinant of Health (SDOH) Services, Psychosocial Services, and General Health Care.) The cluster analysis resulted in five SUD service models, with the most comprehensive having the highest percentage of accredited and Medicaid-accepting facilities, and facilities that were government-operated and located in a Medicaid expansion state, and the least comprehensive having the lowest percentage of accredited, licensed, and Medicaid-accepting facilities, and the highest percentage of private, for-profit facilities.

Our study found that SUD treatment facilities varied in the availability of five treatment components, but more comprehensive service models had a higher percentage of facilities that were licensed, accredited, and accepting Medicaid.