{"id":3019,"date":"2025-08-01T07:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=3019"},"modified":"2026-01-30T07:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:02:15","slug":"initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/","title":{"rendered":"Initiation and Engagement of Substance Use Disorder Treatment (IET)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The percentage of new substance use disorder (SUD) episodes that result in treatment initiation and engagement. Two rates are reported:\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"6\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Initiation of SUD Treatment.<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> The percentage of new SUD episodes that result in treatment initiation through an inpatient SUD admission, outpatient visit, intensive outpatient encounter, partial hospitalization, telehealth visit or medication treatment within 14 days.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"6\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Engagement of SUD Treatment.<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> The percentage of new SUD episodes that have evidence of treatment engagement within 34 days of initiation.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why It Matters<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In 2022, 48.7 million individuals in the U.S. 12 years of age or older (approximately 17.3% of the population) were classified as having had an SUD within the past year <sup>(1)<\/sup>.<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Individuals with SUDs are at increased risk of overdose, injury, soft tissue infections and mortality<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> <sup>(2)<\/sup>. In 2021, drug overdose accounted for 106,699 deaths, representing a 14% increase in overdose deaths compared to 2020 <sup>(3)<\/sup>. Similarly, over 140,000 people die each year from excessive alcohol use <sup>(4)<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Evidence-based treatment for SUD includes both psychosocial supports and, for opioid and alcohol use disorders, medication <sup>(5,6,7,8)<\/sup>. However, despite known and effective treatments, less than 20% of individuals with SUD receive specialty care <sup>(9,10)<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Early treatment engagement is a critical step between accessing care and completing a full course of treatment. Individuals who engage in early SUD treatment have been found to have decreased odds of negative outcomes, including mortality <sup>(11,12)<\/sup>. The intent of this measure is to assess access to evidence-based SUD treatment for individuals beginning a new episode of treatment.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-teams=\"true\">Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of new substance use disorder (SUD) episodes that result in treatment initiation and engagement. Two rates are reported:\u00a0\u00a0 Initiation of SUD Treatment. The percentage of new SUD episodes that result in treatment initiation through an inpatient SUD admission, outpatient visit, intensive outpatient encounter, partial hospitalization, telehealth visit or medication treatment within 14 days.\u00a0\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3019","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Initiation and Engagement of Substance Use Disorder Treatment (IET) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Assesses adults and adolescents 13 years of age and older with a new episode of alcohol or other drug (AOD) dependence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Initiation and Engagement of Substance Use Disorder Treatment (IET) - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Assesses adults and adolescents 13 years of age and older with a new episode of alcohol or other drug (AOD) dependence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T12:02:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/\",\"name\":\"Initiation and Engagement of Substance Use Disorder Treatment (IET) - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T11:00:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T12:02:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"Assesses adults and adolescents 13 years of age and older with a new episode of alcohol or other drug (AOD) dependence.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/initiation-and-engagement-of-substance-use-disorder-treatment-iet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Initiation and Engagement of Substance Use Disorder Treatment (IET)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. 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