The ASAM Criteria
American Society of Addiction Medicine
This is the most widely used and comprehensive set of guidelines for the placement, continued stay, transfer or discharge of patients with addiction and co-occurring conditions.
Formerly known as the ASAM patient placement criteria, The ASAM Criteria is the result of a collaboration that began in the 1980s to define one national set of criteria for providing outcome-oriented and results-based care in the treatment of addiction.
Levels of Care
Many states across the country are using The ASAM Criteria as the foundation of their efforts to improve the addiction treatment system. Adolescent and adult treatment plans are developed through a multidimensional patient assessment over five broad levels of treatment that are based on the degree of direct medical management provided, the structure, safety and security provided, and the intensity of treatment services provided.
The ASAM Criteria’s strength-based multidimensional assessment takes into account a patient's needs, obstacles and liabilities, as well as their strengths, assets, resources, and support structure. This information is used to determine the appropriate level of care across a continuum.
Who Uses The ASAM Criteria
Patients
Patients are encouraged to work with their treatment providers to create an individualized treatment plan based on The ASAM Criteria’s assessment dimensions. The criteria views patients in their entirety, rather than by a single medical or psychological condition. This means it pays attention to the whole patient, including all of his or her life areas, as well as all risks, needs, strengths and goals.
Using The ASAM Criteria, patients can:
- Become active participants in their own care
- Learn about, anticipate and understand treatment options and protocols
- Use The ASAM Criteria’s six dimensions, or life areas, to better understand how risks and strengths, skills and resources in one life area can affect another
Treatment Providers and Clinicians
For treatment providers, The ASAM Criteria provide a holistic approach to determining individualized and outcome-driven treatment plans for patients. Using The ASAM Criteria as a guide, practitioners can:
- Assist a patient from assessment through treatment
- Assist a patient from assessment through treatment
- Work with the patient to determine goals
- Help rank and rate all the patient’s risks, using The ASAM Criteria's multidimensional approach to determine where to focus treatment and services
- Determine the intensity and frequency of service needed using the The ASAM Criteria’s detailed guides to levels of care
Managed Care Providers
The ASAM Criteria provide one common language for assessing patient needs and describe the continuum of addiction care treatment settings.
With The ASAM Criteria, managed care organizations can easily work with treatment providers to ensure plan participants are receiving the treatment that best fits their needs and that resources are wisely used.
There are currently more than 37 managed care organizations that license an electronic version
of the criteria, and these companies represent more than 147,000,000 covered lives.
Oversight and Revision of The ASAM Criteria
Oversight and revision of the criteria is a collaborative process between ASAM leadership and the Steering Committee of the Coalition for National Clinical Criteria. The coalition represents major stakeholders in addiction treatment and has been meeting regularly since the development of the first ASAM Patient Placement Criteria in 1991.
The coalition addresses feedback and ensures that the Criteria adequately serves and supports medical professionals, employers purchasers and providers of care in both the public and private sectors. (Full roster of members and their affiliations and minutes of meetings are available upon request).
Many states across the country are using The ASAM Criteria as the foundation of their efforts to:
- Improve the addiction treatment system.
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