“Investing in prevention makes good financial sense”

From the blog of Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) comes some thoughts on the benefits and costs of prevention.

The costs to the health care system likely related to high-risk behavior by patients ages 9-18 in the North Carolina healthcare system was estimated to be $327 million in 2012, 10 % of all hospital related charges.

“Primary prevention—including screening and intervention before negative health outcomes occur—is relatively inexpensive, and the higher-risk behaviors it is designed to reduce are so costly to the healthcare system that it is staggeringly wasteful not to make sure that screening and treatment referral are readily implemented and faithfully reimbursed by insurers and that interventions are convenient for parents and their children.”

“(An) early childhood intervention called the Nurse Family Partnership, in which specially trained nurses periodically visit first-time mothers during their pregnancy and first two years of their child’s life, was shown in an analysis by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to save taxpayers $2.88 for each dollar invested; the same analysis found that a component of an elementary-school-based intervention called the Good Behavior Game saved taxpayers $25.92 for each dollar.”

“While investment in prevention doesn’t show immediate returns, playing the long game and investing in prevention interventions can save lives and dollars.”

Dr. Nora Volkow, Director

NIDA. 2022, April 28. Investing in Prevention Makes Good Financial Sense. Retrieved from https://nida.nih.gov/about-nida/noras-blog/2022/04/investing-in-prevention-makes-good-financial-sense on 2022, May 6