State to Join Pilot Rating System for Substance-use Treatment Programs

BOSTON — Massachusetts will participate in the development of a new pilot rating system designed to measure quality in addiction-treatment programs. The rating system is being developed by the national nonprofit organization Shatterproof, which is conducting the national pilot.

The rating system will primarily use data from three sources: insurance claims, provider surveys, and consumer-experience surveys. The resulting information will be made publicly available to those searching for high-quality addiction treatment, as well as to public and private payers, states, and referral sources.

The Shatterproof initiative is funded with $5 million from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and health insurers Aetna, Anthem Inc., Beacon Health Options, Cigna, Magellan Health, and UnitedHealth Group.

The rating system will examine evidence-based specialty addiction-treatment providers, including residential, outpatient, and intensive outpatient programs that are licensed, certified, or approved by states to provide substance-use disorder (SUD) treatment. The rating system will also include programs managed by federal agencies, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and the Indian Health Service.

Throughout 2019, Shatterproof; its data analytics contractor, Research Triangle Institute (RTI); and state partners will work with stakeholders to finalize the rating system and begin collecting and analyzing data. Following successful completion of the pilot, the rating system will be launched nationwide.

Substance-use treatment programs in the Commonwealth will be working with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and other state agencies on the pilot, which will begin in March 2019 and continue through 2020.