States have different policies that affect adolescent access to substance abuse treatment services.
In states where eligibility expanded and where MMC enrollment increased, access to adolescent substance abuse treatment remained unchanged or decreased. Other factors, such as referral sources and types of treatment accessed, may impact overall access rates. Adolescent access to treatment and treatment utilization patterns may be a function of multiple factors and not simply the total Medicaid enrollment. Therefore, planning for treatment capacity should examine other system-level factors that drive the demand for treatment such as referral sources, prevalence rates, and trends in treatment utilization.