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From New York Times:
Through its Medicaid program, New York spends far more than other states on drug and alcohol treatment, including more than $300 million a year paid to hospitals for more than 30,000 detox patients.
One reason for the high cost is that $50 million is spent just on the 500 most expensive patients, at a cost of about $100,000 a person.
These patients check in and out of detox wards, on average, more than a dozen times a year --- a practice that experts say would not be tolerated in most states.
In the state's 2004 fiscal year, one patient was admitted to such units 26 times at 17 different hospitals around New York City, spending a total of 204 nights, Medicaid records show.
Among state officials, doctors who treat addiction, service groups dedicated to helping the homeless and mentally ill, even the addicts themselves, there is remarkable agreement on why the treatment system in New York is overpriced and inefficient.
Medicaid rules in New York also encourage hospitals to provide the most expensive kind of inpatient detoxification, though it is often not medically necessary, while many other states favor a less expensive form of inpatient treatment.
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Posted on April 16, 2007 10:54 PM
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