March 23rd, 2008 by jgold454

Addiction treatment programs that were paid money based on their success rates ended up providing a better quality of service and more accountability. Addiction programs received this money from the state of Delaware. The study that researched this issue was performed by the Treatment Research Institute.

Delaware has a contracting program that provides incentives for addiction treatment centers that offer the best results. Certain goals were stated for keeping patients in treatment for longer periods of time and maximizing the use of facilities by filling them with more patients. The general practice is for individual states to pay addiction programs either according to the number of patients they have or based on a fixed contract. Delaware began their new method in 2002.

As a result, the rehab programs responded by offering higher quality of services. Overall, they were able to keep their patients involved in addiction treatment for longer lengths of time, which increases individuals’ chances of success in addiction recovery. They also found new ways to attract new patients into their programs, providing more people with the opportunity to get help from a rehab facility. They did this by improving the services they offered and using new methods of treatment.

In 2001, only 54 percent of the spaces in treatment programs in Delaware were filled. However, by the year 2006, that number had risen dramatically to 95 percent. Likewise, the average number of patients who participated in a rehab program for at least 30 days went from 53 percent in 2001 to 70 percent in 2006.

The success of this incentive program is good news for people in Delaware who are dealing with an alcoholism or drug addiction problem. The quality of services in that state appears to have increased drastically. Other places may consider similar programs for rehabilitation as a result of this study.