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Erika Crable

Erika Crable, PhD, MPH, is a faculty fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and an Assistant Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, with expertise in health policy, health services research, and implementation science. Her research investigates the roles of policy and politics in achieving health equity outcomes.

Crable tests dissemination and implementation strategies aimed at improving how research is communicated to policy actors and increasing access to evidence-based substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, harm reduction, and HIV prevention services for safety-net and criminal/legal-involved populations.

In 2025, she received a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Avenir Award to develop and test innovative methods to address policy barriers that hinder access to effective substance use disorder and HIV services.

Crable is principal investigator of a NIDA-funded grant that investigates how evidence is used to inform Medicaid benefits and tests dissemination strategies to improve access to medications for opioid use disorder in Medicaid benefit arrays across all U.S. states and territories. She is also co-investigator of two NIDA grants: (1) testing implementation strategies to support state and county data-driven decisions in Oregon and (2) investigating the utility of simulation modeling, collaboration and dissemination strategies with health departments in six states on Reversing Overdose Epidemics through Simulation, Collaboration and Unified Efforts (RESCUE).

Crable is an alumna of the NIMH/NIDA-funded Implementation Research Institute Fellowship and the NIDA-funded Lifespan/Brown University Criminal Justice Research Training Program Fellowship. She previously worked as a health policy consultant to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), among other federal and state entities.

Crable earned a PhD in Health Services Research and an MPH in Global Health from Boston University.

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Journal Article

Journal Article

Medicaid Payment Rates for Substance Use Disorder Treatment—Design, Data, and Lack of Transparency

As the largest payer of substance use disorder (SUD) services, Medicaid plays a key role in SUD treatment delivery in the United States. Insurers reimburse SUD services at lower rates than many other healthcare services, and rates are lowest in Medicaid relative to Medicare or commercial insurance. Low payment disincentivizes clinicians from specializing in addiction and limits the volume of Medicaid patients treated. Growing interest in implementing and evaluating improved Medicaid payments is stymied by complex payment methodologies and limited data. 

This study aims to understand how states set Medicaid payment rates for substance use disorder providers and explores the utility of publicly available data for characterizing rates.

Researchers conducted qualitative interviews with state leaders with Medicaid expertise in seven select states. Key findings include:

  • States have heterogeneous and opaque processes for setting Medicaid SUD provider payment rates.
  • Published Medicaid fee schedules often do not reflect the full payments providers receive.
  • Data on Medicaid SUD payments, particularly payments through managed care, are not consistently publicly available.
     

Authors found that state processes for SUD payment rate setting vary widely and published fee schedules have limited utility for interpretation of actual SUD provider payment. Improved transparency is needed to study whether and how changing Medicaid provider payments can improve SUD treatment access and patient outcomes.

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Publications
Journal Article

Journal Article

Medicaid Payment Rates for Substance Use Disorder Treatment—Design, Data, and Lack of Transparency

As the largest payer of substance use disorder (SUD) services, Medicaid plays a key role in SUD treatment delivery in the United States. Insurers reimburse SUD services at lower rates than many other healthcare services, and rates are lowest in Medicaid relative to Medicare or commercial insurance. Low payment disincentivizes clinicians from specializing in addiction and limits the volume of Medicaid patients treated. Growing interest in implementing and evaluating improved Medicaid payments is stymied by complex payment methodologies and limited data. 

This study aims to understand how states set Medicaid payment rates for substance use disorder providers and explores the utility of publicly available data for characterizing rates.

Researchers conducted qualitative interviews with state leaders with Medicaid expertise in seven select states. Key findings include:

  • States have heterogeneous and opaque processes for setting Medicaid SUD provider payment rates.
  • Published Medicaid fee schedules often do not reflect the full payments providers receive.
  • Data on Medicaid SUD payments, particularly payments through managed care, are not consistently publicly available.
     

Authors found that state processes for SUD payment rate setting vary widely and published fee schedules have limited utility for interpretation of actual SUD provider payment. Improved transparency is needed to study whether and how changing Medicaid provider payments can improve SUD treatment access and patient outcomes.

View more publications

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