Design Of Mental Health Benefits: Still Unequal After All These Years

Relationships between serious psychological distress and the use of health services in the United States: findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

“…21 However, parity in mental health coverage has not been achieved; thereby creating an access problem for many people with mental health issues. 22 Barry and colleagues have further noted that increasing parity for mental health, at least in the context of managed care, will not significantly increase total health care spending. 23 The findings of this study indicate a need for health insurance coverage among persons with serious psychological distress.…”

The Impact of Parity on Major Depression Treatment Quality in the Federal Employees’ Health Benefits Program After Parity Implementation

“…1 These more restricted benefits such as service or spending limits and higher cost-sharing have been criticized for their inflexibility in covering care needed for the sickest patients. 2,3 This also conflicts with the principal role of insurance to insure against large financial losses resulting from illness.…”

Does provider variation matter to health plans?

“…Over half of managed care plans carve-out behavioral health care to a specialty managed behavioral health organization (Novartis, 1998;Barry et al, 2003). One of the primary catalysts for this partitioning of insurance policies is the evidence of costsavings without strong evidence of a decline in quality, access, or clinical outcomes (Grazier et al, 1999;Cuffel et al, 1999;Burns et al, 1999;Huskamp, 1999;Goldman et al, 1998;Ma and McGuire, 1998;Busch, 2002), although some exceptions should be noted (e.g., Ray et al, 2003;Manning et al, 1999).…”