Pint of Postdoc Speaker Recap - Dr. Milena Stanojlovi

“Engagement in care for people with Opioid Use Disorder: Review of Connecticut Medicaid Data  “

Dr. Milena Stanojlovi

Edited by:

Jennifer Blackburn (assisted by Aileen Fernandez)

Abstract:

Engagement in care is a major challenge in addiction treatment and recovery. One way to depict engagement in care on a population level is by using cascade of care: a public health framework that allows us to track people from one stage to another in receiving healthcare services and to assess where gaps or drops in the provision of effective care exist. In Milena Stanojlovi’s work, they applied the cascade of care approach to the Medicaid claims data to evaluate the quality of care for individuals with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in Connecticut. 

For the February 2021 Pint of Postdoc series, she shared how the results of engagement in OUD care in CT reflect the national estimates. The major treatment gap was found to occur when linking people to care, as only ¼ of the diagnosed people get fully connected to some form of specialty treatment for OUD. Addiction requires long-term care and support services, but retention in care for at least 12 months are 26% of those who were connected to treatment in the first place. Eleven percent of the sample was in remission, staying out of the emergency room for 1 year or longer. These preliminary findings can help healthcare policy makers to better understand where the system failures are and develop targets for improvement.