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CM, best treatment for stimulants, avoided due to kickback laws
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the brown university child and adolescent psychopharmacology update
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7567
pISSN - 1527-8395
DOI - 10.1002/cpu.30512
Subject(s) - inspector general , medicaid , payment , stimulant , human services , law , medicine , guardian , business , health care , political science , pharmacology , finance , audit , accounting
Contingency management (CM), which means rewarding drug users not to use drugs, is the only known effective treatment for stimulant use disorder, but it has become caught up in anti‐kickback initiatives. At the heart of the problem is a misunderstanding: CM payments are not kickbacks — they are part of treatment. But “safe harbor” initiatives from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are interpreting them as such, and not allowing Medicaid to pay for them (only $75 a year per patient).