Increasing activation and use of billing codes within insurance, and the expansion of screening and brief intervention (SBI) to settings beyond healthcare, is encouraging for the prevention and early intervention of substance use, misuse, and disorders among adolescents, according to a new study.
The paper published in the Journal of Adolescent Health (2023) presented a narrative review incorporating rapid scoping review methods and a search of the gray literature to determine payment and financing approaches for SBI with adolescents and to describe related barriers and facilitators for its sustainability.
Findings showed that SBI is mostly paid through grant funding and public and commercial insurance; school-based settings use a range of approaches including grants, public insurance and other public funding.
SBI is a USPSTF-approved service for adults, is included in the NCQA performance measure set for insurers and is part of the essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act.
The authors concluded that SBI is practical and sustainable, and payment for SBI serves as an incentive for conducting the service.
Prevention Plus Wellness (PPW) screening and brief interventions, including the one-session evidence-based SPORT and InShape PPW programs for youth and young adults, respectively, are a more holistic option for providing SBI in school, community, and healthcare settings.
PPW SBIs are “whole health” in that they not only target substance use prevention (i.e., alcohol, e-cigarette, marijuana, and opioids) but also promote healthy lifestyle behaviors (i.e., physical activity, healthy nutrition, sleep, and stress control) known to enhance mental and physical wellbeing.
Adding an additional substance abuse screening survey (e.g., CRAFFT+N, DAST-10 or AUDIT) to the PPW screening survey allows the provider to implement PPW as a universal prevention intervention for all youth/adults, but also identify higher-risk individuals for referral to treatment.
SAMHSA provides information about coding for reimbursing screening and brief intervention services: https://www.samhsa.gov/sbirt/coding-reimbursement#:~:text=Reimbursement%20for%20screening%20and%20brief,insurance%2C%20Medicare%2C%20and%20Medicaid
For more information about PPW SBIs: https://preventionpluswellness.com
Read the entire article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9945348/