Inter-Agency Strategies Used by State Mental Health Agencies to Assist with Federal Behavioral Health Parity Implementation

Abstract

State mental health agencies have potential to enhance implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), particularly through collaborations with state insurance agencies. Little research, however, has examined state agencies’ MHPAEA implementation strategies. The study purpose was to describe the trend in collaboration between state mental health agencies and other state agencies to assist with MHPAEA implementation between 2010–2015 and characterize implementation strategies used. A content analysis of information in the State Mental Health Profiling System was conducted. In 2010, 54.9% of state mental health agencies anticipated involvement with MHPAEA implementation through collaborations with other state agencies, but only 23.5% were involved in 2012 and 11.8% were in 2015. Ongoing consultation (58.5%) and local technical assistance (14.6%) were the implementation strategies most frequently used. State mental health agency involvement with MHPAEA implementation though inter-agency collaboration has been limited. Future research should examine factors that influence such collaborations.

Translating Medicaid policy into practice: policy implementation strategies from three US states’ experiences enhancing substance use disorder treatment

“…This research builds on prior work demonstrating the generalizability of ERIC strategies in health policy implementation research [9,23]. Purtle et al categorized ERIC strategy use by state mental health agencies to promote federal behavioral health parity implementation [9]. Like Purtle et al, we found that providing interactive assistance was a frequently used policy implementation strategy during the Implementation phase.…”

“…Research is needed to explore the utility of each strategy, or bundled strategies, for promoting adoption of evidence-based substance use treatment services. Our study and others [9,23] suggest directions for future health policy implementation science including further identification and specification of strategies for promoting policy adoption, and quantitative measurements of the utility of health policy implementation strategies in global settings.…”

“…Finally, this study enhances our understanding of policy implementation strategies by providing a specified a taxonomy of ERIC implementation strategies used across all four EPIS phases to implement SUD waiver policies. This research builds on prior work demonstrating the generalizability of ERIC strategies in health policy implementation research [9,23]. Purtle et al categorized ERIC strategy use by state mental health agencies to promote federal behavioral health parity implementation [9].…”

“…This subfield is necessary to advance our understanding of how outer context factors mediate or moderate implementation efforts, including how organizations/agencies (comprised of policymakers, providers and other intermediaries) influence policy implementation processes and the impact of policy on population health outcomes [3,5]. Despite the important upstream impact policy has on population health, few policy studies in health implementation science have examined implementation processes and strategies used to translate "Big P policies" from state and federal entities into accessible services in the community [6][7][8][9].…”

Developing an Evidence-Based Technical Assistance Model: a Process Evaluation of the National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Child, Youth, and Family Mental Health

“…A range of empirical studies as well as observations from veteran researchers and policy-makers point to low and declining rates of state and federal funding for both support to and research on implementation support for effective behavioral health practices. [33][34][35] As such, it is critical that established providers of TA such as NTTAC have guidance to efficiently and effectively achieve their mission. Unfortunately, the literature focused on how best to provide evidence-based TA is even more limited than that focused on specific evidence-based behavioral health treatments.…”