PART B: COLLECTION OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
Substance
Use Disorder Patient Placement Criteria Used By States
SUPPORTING
STATEMENT
Respondents will consist of 1) a representative from the single state agency (SSA) for substance abuse services and 2) the state Medicaid agency within each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (N=102).
Based on previous substance use disorder (SUD) data collection efforts among these entities, we expect an overall response rate of 85%. The National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) has previously conducted similar surveys among SSAs and achieved response rates between 80%-85%. Some researchers have also achieved slightly higher response rates with Medicaid Directors (92% for the National Drug Abuse Treatment System Survey, Grogan et al., 2016).
No sampling methods will be used.
ASPE will contract with RTI International (RTI) to lead the project. NASADAD will administer the survey under subcontract to RTI. Because it represents directors of state authorities, NASADAD has unrivalled and well-established connections with directors of SSAs. They also regularly communicate with, share information with, and collect data from SSAs.
To collect data from SSAs, NASADAD will identify the appropriate contact in the SSA office to send the survey to and will then email that contact a cover letter (Attachment B) with a link to the online survey (Attachment A).
To collect data from state Medicaid agencies, RTI International and NASADAD will compile a list of initial points of contact in the Medicaid office from the following sources, in order of priority: (a) recommendations from the SSA staff, (b) the agency organizational chart, and (c) contacts listed on Medicaid.gov (https://www.medicaid.gov/about-us/contact-us/contact-state-page.html). RTI will call the initial point of contact to establish in priority order which staff person is best suited to be the suggested respondent for that state’s Medicaid agency. (The intention is that the initial point of contact would be the suggested respondent.) RTI will contact the suggested respondent to establish suitability for completing the survey and then email the suggested respondent the cover letter with the link to the electronic survey.
The cover letter will ask for a response by a date set to one week from the date of the email invitation.
To achieve a 85% response rate, we will first ensure that the respondent is the most appropriate by leveraging the connections that NASADAD has with state SSA. We will also send reminders: RTI will send up to three reminder emails and make at least one reminder phone call. The messages will encourage the respondent to complete the survey, provide a deadline to complete, and a contact for questions. RTI will send the initial reminder one weeks after the cover letter is distributed. Additional reminders will take place weekly after that.
If an individual does not respond to the survey or any of the four follow-up reminders (calls and emails; a total of five weeks after sending the cover letter), then a different respondent within the SSA or Medicaid agency (e.g., deputy director) will be asked to complete the survey. That respondent will be the second person in the list of prioritized contacts described above. If there is no response from the secondary respondent after the four reminders (a further five weeks), then that state entity will not be included in the study.
No remuneration will be given to the respondents for their time to complete the survey because they are acting in their official state governmental role. Additionally, the amount of time to fill out the survey will be minimal (approximately 10 minutes).
RTI has pre-tested the survey by asking three state representatives to complete the survey and share their thought processes and feedback while taking it. Two of these staff were key stakeholder respondents in discussions led by RTI last fiscal year on the topic of SUD patient placement and needs assessment. The feedback from the state representatives has been included in the survey that is provided in Attachment A.
This project is being conducted as a part of a larger contract that ASPE has established with RTI International (Contract number HHSP233201600021I). A subcontract will also be established with NASADAD to help with the fielding of the survey. The ASPE Contract Officer for this project is Helen Lamont (Helen.Lamont@hhs.gov) and the ASPE Project Lead is Judith Dey (Judith.Dey@hhs.gov). The researchers at RTI International conducting this survey will be John Richardson (jsrichardson@rti.org), Alexander Cowell (cowell@rti.org), and Eric Villeneuve (evilleneuve@rti.org). The researchers at NASADAD that will be helping with this project are Melanie Whitter (mwhitter@nasadad.org), Robert Morrison (rmorrison@nasadad.org), Marcia Trick (mtrick@nasadad.org), and Claire Gray (cgray@nasadad.org).
Grogan, C.M., Andrews, C., Abraham, A., Humphreys, K., Pollack, H.A., Smith, B.T., Friedmann, P.D. (2016). Survey highlights differences in Medicaid coverage for substance use treatment and opioid use disorder medications. Health Affairs, 35, 2289-2296.
Attachment A: Survey on Substance Use Disorder Patient Placement Criteria
Attachment B: Introductory Cover Letter
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Dpatterson |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-14 |