Question

What are the maryland regulations/laws on drug treatment facilities? How does the regulations impact healthcare professionals, healthcare provider organizations, health care product developers, health plans, payers and insurers?

Answer 1

ANS.

A. Program Description. The program shall provide outpatient evaluation and treatment to patients who require services for less than 9 hours weekly for adults and 6 hours weekly for adolescents.

B. Patients who are appropriate for this level of treatment shall:

(1) Meet the current edition of the American Society of Addiction Medicine Patient Placement Criteria for Level I, or its equivalent as approved by the Administration; and

(2) Have a physical and emotional status that allows them to function in their usual environment.

C. Staffing.

(1) Services shall be provided by appropriately credentialed staff as described in COMAR 10.47.01.06.

(2) The adult patient to alcohol and drug counselor ratio may not exceed 30 adult patients weekly to one full-time alcohol and drug counselor.

(3) The child and adolescent patient to alcohol and drug counselor ratio may not exceed 25 adolescent patients weekly to one full-time alcohol and drug counselor.

D. Program Services. A program shall provide the following services:

(1) An assessment as described in COMAR 10.47.01.04 within 2 weeks of admission;

(2) An individualized treatment plan as described in COMAR 10.47.01.04 completed and signed by the alcohol and drug counselor and patient within 7 working days of the comprehensive assessment and updated every 90 days;

(3) Case management services;

(4) Group or individual counseling sessions;

(5) Family services that shall include an assessment for family treatment needs and, as clinically appropriate:

(a) Alcohol and drug education; and

(b) Family counseling.

E. Documentation. The clinical staff providing the service shall write a patient progress note after each counseling session and shall place the note in the patient's record.

F. Referral Services. The program shall offer the following services or maintain a listing of agency referral agreements for the following services:

(1) Medical examinations;

(2) Services through the Division of Rehabilitation Services;

(3) Vocational assistance;

(4) Mental health services;

(5) Substance abuse treatment programs;

(6) Legal assistance; and

(7) Social services.

managed healthcare is used in the United States to describe a group of activities intended to reduce the cost of providing for-profit health care and providing American health insurance while improving the quality of that care ("managed care techniques"). It has become the essentially exclusive system of delivering and receiving American health care since its implementation in the early 1980s, and has been largely unaffected by the Affordable Care Act of 2010..intended to reduce unnecessary health care costs through a variety of mechanisms, including: economic incentives for physicians and patients to select less costly forms of care, programs for reviewing the medical necessity of specific services, increased beneficiary cost sharing,controls on inpatient admissions and lengths of stay; the establishment of cost-sharing incentives for outpatient surgery; selective contracting with health care providers; and the intensive management of high-cost health care cases. The programs may be provided in a variety of settings, such as Health Maintenance Organizations and Preferred Provider Organizations.