T-MSIS Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Data Book: Treatment of SUD in Medicaid, 2017 (Report to Congress)

This first annual SUD Data Book reports the number of Medicaid beneficiaries with a SUD and the services they received during calendar year 2017, the most recent complete year of T-MSIS enrollment and claims data available when the analysis was conducted. The Substance Use–Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (P.L. 115-271) (SUPPORT Act) mandated this report be produced on an annual basis. This inaugural report identified almost 4.1 million Medicaid beneficiaries (nearly 8 percent) were treated for a SUD in 2017. Of these beneficiaries, nearly 1.2 million (slightly less than 29 percent of those treated for a SUD) were treated for an opioid use disorder.

The information in the SUD Data Book derives from a research-ready version of the T-MSIS data, the T-MSIS Analytic Files (TAF). The T-MSIS and the TAF data represent the new national data system for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Given new information systems present unique challenges to analytical use of the data, the SUPPORT Act also requires a description of the quality and completeness of the data used in the SUD data book, which is presented in eight Data Quality Briefs that accompany the data book. These Data Quality Briefs illustrate the data were not fully established or robust in all states when the analytic work was conducted for the data book. Nevertheless, the SUD data book presents the most recent data available on the number of Medicaid beneficiaries receiving treatment for SUD, the types of services they receive, the settings where they receive these services, the delivery systems that provide the services, and the progression of care.