The Impact of Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease Exclusion Waivers on the Availability of Substance Abuse Treatment Services and the Varying Effect by Ownership Type, in The Milbank Quarterly
key takeaway: "The adoption of an IMD SUD waiver is associated with 1.068 greater odds of that state having facilities offering co-occurring MH and substance abuse (SA) treatment a year or more later. The adoption of a waiver increases the odds of a state's residential treatment facility offering co-occurring MH and SA treatment by 1.129 a year or more later. Additionally, the results suggest 1.163 higher odds of offering co-occurring MH/SA treatment in private for-profit SA facilities in states that adopt an IMD SUD waiver while suggesting no significant impact on offered services by private not-for-profit or public facilities."
Investigating the Complexity of Naloxone Distribution: Which Policies Matter for Pharmacies and Potential Recipients, in Journal of Health Economics
key takeaway: "We find that laws that only address liability costs have small and insignificant effects on the volume of naloxone dispensed through pharmacies. In contrast, we estimate large effects of laws removing the need for patients to obtain prescriptions from traditional prescribers (e.g., primary care physicians): laws authorizing non-patient-specific prescription distribution and laws granting pharmacists prescriptive authority."
Quantifying suicide contagion at population scale, in Science Advances
key takeaway: "Our modeling approach provides a framework for quantifying suicidal contagion and better understanding, preventing, and containing its spread."