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Benefit flexibility, cost shifting and mandated mental health coverage.

This paper presents a policy analysis of options for making a state's mandated mental health benefit more flexible while maintaining insurance premiums at a constant level. The analysis illustrates the difficult choices facing legislatures that attempt to balance improved coverage for mental health care with concerns about rising health care costs. A sophisticated simulation model is used to assess the costs of four alternative insurance benefit design options.

Ambulatory Care↗

How mental health providers see managed care.

This paper reports findings from two focus groups on managed care conducted in a large U.S. city in 1989. Questions addressed included how managed care had affected mental health practice, specific experiences with managed care, the mechanisms of managed care, and how managed care could be improved. The practitioners complained of multiple problems, but clearly distinguished between "good" and "bad" firms. Firms seen as more positive struck a balance between quality care and cost containment, built ongoing relationships with providers, and negotiated with providers, rather than prescribing a treatment plan. The authors conclude that some of the poor reception by providers of managed care may have been created unnecessarily by firms which have not attended to these factors, and that attention to such factors might lead to a more ready acceptance of managed care.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Maintaining the confidentiality of computerized mental health outcome data.

The emergence of managed behavioral health care has increased the value of data describing outcomes of mental health treatment. At the same time, increased development of the national information infrastructure and other computer linkage systems has facilitated the flow of information among a wide network of data systems. These two developments create a dynamic tension between the need to share information and the need to protect the privacy of mental health clients and the confidentiality of their computerized records. This problem is exacerbated by the cost associated with potential solutions. Unfortunately, policy development in this area has lagged behind rapid developments in technology. The mental health administrator must balance the three components of this conflict (the increasing need for information transfer, the protection of confidentiality, and cost) without a great deal of guidance. This article offers recommendations that may help the mental health administrator manage this conflict.

Computer Security↗

A survey of state insurance mandates covering alcohol and other drug treatment.

This article reports the results of a survey of health insurance mandate legislation for alcohol and other drug treatment in the 50 states through spring 1991. A total of 23 states (including the District of Columbia) requires insurance carriers to provide coverage for alcohol and other drug treatment. This paper compares the provisions in these states at the present time and contrasts these provisions with those in effect in 1981. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy objectives states pursue through enactment of such legislation and the outcomes brought about by the mandates.

Alcoholism↗

Private sector coverage of people with dual diagnoses.

In general, people with dual diagnoses account for a significant proportion of both the mental health and substance abuse populations. Most published information on dual diagnosis comes from research on selected treatment programs that are largely funded from public sources. This analysis uses private health insurance claims and eligibility files for 1989 to 1991 for three large firms to identify individuals with both substance abuse and mental health claims and to examine their characteristics, charges, and utilization. More than half of people with dual diagnoses incurred significant charges over three years in both mental health and substance abuse. These individuals with high mental health charges were more likely to be male than were patients with mental health claims alone; they were less likely to be male than were patients with claims for substance abuse and no mental health services. They were also significantly younger than were patients with substance abuse or mental health utilization only for two of the firms. The average charges for people with dual diagnoses were higher than those for patients with substance abuse or mental health claims only.

Adult↗

Fiscal resource development for state mental health agencies.

As funds for human service programs grow scarcer, state mental health departments must become more aggressive in seeking out new funding sources. The development of a fiscal resource development unit at the state level is proposed as one approach to the problem.

Community Mental Health Services↗

Provision and remuneration of psychotherapeutic services in Switzerland.

OBJECTIVES: To establish the number of psychotherapists with professional backgrounds; psychotherapeutic provision and its cost; change in cost in case of integration of non-medical psychotherapy into the mandatory minimum health care benefit. METHODS: A population-based survey using computer-assisted telephone interviews in a randomly selected sample of medical and non-medical psychotherapists (NMP), stratified by professional status and language regions. RESULTS: 1,633 psychiatrists, 2,332 general practitioners and 2,616 NMP provide psychotherapy in Switzerland. NMP by training: 1,674 (64%) hold a university degree in psychology; 539 (21%) hold a professional school degree in psychology; and 403 (15%) have various backgrounds. In 2000, 146,000 patients utilised 4.52 million hours of medical psychotherapy, which cost CHF 579 million, CHF 396 million of which were reimbursed by mandatory health insurance (MHI). Reimbursement of NMP by MHI would result in additional expenditures of CHF 102-252 million. CONCLUSIONS: NMP provide 46% of psychotherapy which is currently partly reimbursed by the MHI. An integration of NMP into the MHI benefit package would incur additional costs to MHI of CHF 102-252 million.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗

Telepsychiatry and e-mental health services: potential for improving access to mental health care.

Reforming mental health care is a focus of many ongoing initiatives in the United States, both at the national and state levels. Access to adequate mental health care services is one of the identified problems. Telepsychiatry and e-mental health services could improve access to mental health care in rural, remote and underserved areas. The authors discuss the required technology, common applications and barriers associated with the implementation of telepsychiatry and e-mental health services.

Health Services Accessibility↗

An econometric model of an episode of mental health care for patients with mild conditions: implications for caregiver substitution.

This article presents a model of the number of hours of mental health care, the concurrent improvement in the patient's condition, the probability the patient will receive medications, and the reasons for treatment termination. The variables related to these aspects of mental health care are analyzed separately for patients of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. Estimates of the average length of treatment, the average price and income elasticities, and the average cost of treatment are obtained from the model. The major conclusions from this study are that psychiatrists do not have a benefit-cost advantage in the treatment of relatively mild conditions, and that consumer responsiveness to variations in price appear to be largely confined to the decision to seek treatment. These and other findings provide a basis for making tentative recommendations about personnel substitution and reimbursement policies in mental health.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

Taiwan's Mental Health Law.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗

The effect of managed care on the treatment outcome of substance use disorders.

This study examined the effect of managed care and other reimbursement mechanisms on the outcome of substance abuse treatment at a single treatment facility. A retrospective review of 1594 patient records yielded treatment utilization, diagnostic, and demographic data. Recidivism rates for intensive managed care, traditional managed care, private pay, and state-funded groups of patients were compared. Results showed that, contrary to expectations, recidivism rates were not different for managed vs nonmanaged care patients. In addition, recidivist patients had significantly more ICD-9 diagnoses than nonrecidivist patients. A discussion of future research suggests that other outcome measures need to be examined in addition to recidivism rate, such as psychosocial functioning following treatment and indicator(s) of severity of illness, to better determine the effect of managed care and other reimbursement mechanisms on treatment outcome.

Adult↗

The demand for episodes of mental health services.

Observational studies of demand for mental health services showed much greater use by those with more generous insurance, but this difference may have been due to adverse selection, rather than in response to price. This paper avoids the adverse selection problem by using data from a randomized trial, the RAND Health Insurance Experiment (HIE). Participating families were randomly assigned to insurance plans that either provided free care or were a mixture of first dollar coinsurance and free care after a cap on out-of-pocket spending was reached. We estimate that separate effects of coinsurance and the cap on the demand for episodes of outpatient mental health services. We find that outpatient mental health use is more responsive to price than is outpatient medical use, but not as responsive as most observational studies have indicated. Those with no insurance coverage would spend about one-quarter as much on mental health care as they would with free care. Coinsurance reduces the number of episodes of treatment, but has only a small effect on the duration and intensity of use within episodes. Users appear to anticipate exceeding the cap, and spend at more than the free rate after they do so.

Data Collection↗

Factors related to the use of ambulatory mental health services in three provider plans.

The use of ambulatory mental health (MH) services by adults was studied in three provider plans: Blue Cross (BC), Group Health Cooperative (GHC) and United Healthcare (UHC), an experimental new plan in which a patient's primary care physician managed all of his care. Approximately 8.3% of the enrollees in each plan had some MH use in the 18 months of the study. We studied correlates of MH use (yes/no). Sex was not a significant predictor of MH use. In general, worse health and lower socioeconomic status (SES) were correlated with having at least one MH visit, but better health and higher SES were correlated with a higher quantity of use for those who had some MH use. The three insurance plans did not differ significantly in the proportion of people who had any MH services, but BC users of MH services had 2-3 times more MH visits and higher costs than GHC and UHC users. This suggests that the reliance on primary care providers in UHC and GHC may have changed the nature of MH care as compared to Blue Cross. The effects of income, MH need and symptom sensitivity on MH use were different among the three plans.

Ambulatory Care↗

Funding mechanisms for depression care management: opportunities and challenges.

OBJECTIVE: Inconsistent third-party reimbursement for depression care management is a significant economic barrier to the utilization and sustainability of the chronic illness care model in primary care practice settings. We review common mechanisms used to procure payment for depression care management services, discuss obstacles encountered and suggest future directions. METHOD: We describe several extant models for funding depression care management services in use at the demonstration sites of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded "Depression in Primary Care" project and similar programs. We derived this information from ongoing discussions with the sites' project directors and through an extensive electronic literature search on "care management, funding mechanisms and depression." RESULTS: Funding mechanisms include (a) practice-based care management on a fee-for-service basis, (b) practice-based care management under contract to health plans, (c) global capitation, (d) flexible infrastructure support for chronic care management, (e) health-plan-based care management, (f) third-party-based care management under contract to health plans and (g) hybrid models. CONCLUSIONS: While substantial obstacles remain in the way of fully implementing these depression care management funding mechanisms (e.g., variations in care managers' credentials and work locations and third-party payer concerns about overutilization and transaction costs), several recent policy advances provide some optimism for the potential adoption of financial mechanisms to support and disseminate these evidence-based practices.

Capitation Fee↗