Why OIG Did This Audit

• To assist individuals and families in finding treatment for substance use and mental disorders, SAMHSA maintains the website FindTreatment.gov. A media article reported that SAMHSA’s treatment locators, including FindTreatment.gov, contained inaccurate and outdated information.
• This audit assessed whether SAMHSA reported on FindTreatment.gov accurate, complete, and timely information on substance use and mental health treatment facilities.

What OIG Found

• As of April 20, 2023, for 66 of 100 sampled facilities, some information that SAMHSA reported on FindTreatment.gov was inaccurate, such as inaccurate facility addresses and services information (e.g., incorrect reporting of treatment approaches offered). Based on our sample results, we estimated that 14,283 of 22,106 facilities had inaccurately reported information.
• Selected critical information for facilities was generally reported on FindTreatment.gov (such as facility addresses). However, 11 of the 22,106 facilities listed on FindTreatment.gov did not report some critical information. Also, SAMHSA processed facility and consumer requests to update facility information on FindTreatment.gov in a timely manner.
• SAMHSA relies on facilities to report accurate information when they complete a voluntary annual survey. SAMHSA also relies on facilities, Single State Agencies, and consumers to inform SAMHSA or its contractor of any information changes or inaccuracies. Although SAMHSA had procedures and system edits to validate facilities’ responses, the procedures and edits were insufficient to identify inaccurate facility information and prevent the submission of the survey with incomplete critical information fields. Inaccurate facility information may hinder or delay individuals’ access to appropriate treatment services for substance use and mental disorders.

What OIG Recommends

We recommend that SAMHSA:

1. work with its contractor to strengthen procedures related to verifying facility information, such as validating a sample of facilities each year;
2. improve the prominence of the statement on FindTreatment.gov about contacting the contractor to report an issue with the information listed for a facility; and
3. work with the contractor to implement additional system edits in the survey to prevent facilities from submitting the survey without completing all of the critical information fields.

SAMHSA concurred with all three recommendations.

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