Service utilization and cost of community care for discharged state hospital patients: a 3-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the mental health service utilization and costs of 321 discharged state hospital patients during a 3-year follow-up period compared with costs if the patients had remained in the hospital. METHOD: The study subjects were long-stay patients discharged from Philadelphia State Hospital after 1988. A longitudinal integrated database on all mental health and medical services reimbursed by Medicaid and Medicare as well as state- and county-funded services was used to construct service utilization and unit cost measures. RESULTS: During the 3-year period after discharge, 20%-30% of the patients required rehospitalization an average of 76-91 days per year. The percentage of rehospitalized patients decreased over time, but the number of hospital days increased. All of the discharged patients received case management services, and a majority also received outpatient mental health care (66%-70%) and residential services (75%) throughout the follow-up period. The total treatment cost per person was approximately $60,000 a year after controlling for inflation, with costs rising slightly over the 3-year period. The estimated cost of state hospitalization, with the use of 1992 estimates, would have been $130,000 per year if the patients had remained institutionalized. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis suggests that most former long-stay patients are able to live in residential settings while receiving community outpatient treatment and intensive case management services at a reduced cost. There is no indication of cost shifting from the psychiatric to the health care sector; however, some cost shifting from the state mental health agency to the Medicaid program has occurred, since most psychiatric hospital care now takes place in community hospitals.     

A randomized trial of short-term acute residential treatment for veterans

OBJECTIVE: A variety of alternatives to acute psychiatric hospital care have been developed over the past several decades. including San Diego's short-term acute residential treatment (START) program, now comprising a certified and accredited network of six facilities with a total of 75 beds. This study compared outcomes, patient satisfaction, and episode costs for a sample of 99 veterans who received acute care either at an inpatient unit at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital or at a START facility. METHODS: Consenting participants were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment settings. Follow-up was conducted at two months. During the follow-up period, participants received treatment as usual. Multiple standardized measures were used to maximize validity in assessing symptoms, functioning, and quality of life. RESULTS: Participants who were treated in either a hospital or the START program showed significant improvement between admission, discharge, and two-month follow-up, with few statistically significant differences between the groups in symptoms and functioning. There was some evidence that START participants had greater satisfaction with services. Mean costs for the index episode were significantly lower for START participants (65 percent lower) than for those who were treated in the hospital. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the START model provides effective voluntary acute psychiatric care in a non-hospital-based setting at considerably lower cost. Efforts to replicate and evaluate the model at additional locations merit attention.     

Crisis intervention and affective disorders: A comparative cost-effectiveness study

In recent years, psychiatric institutions have been increasingly urged to justify their clinical policies in order to ensure both effective treatment and efficient management. Assessment instruments for effectiveness and costs are essential to respond to these needs. The aim of this study was to determine the cost-effectiveness of treatments for major depressive disorders. We conducted a comparative pilot investigation of treatment costs in patients with a major depressive episode assigned to specialised out-patient crisis intervention, to specialised in-patient treatment and to standard mental hospital care. The study included 122 subjects. The inclusion criteron was a diagnosis of DSM-III-R major depressive episode. Costs were assessed by determining the average cost for each treatment and the modalities of payment systems. Treatment duration and costs were high, but specialised crisis intervention may considerably reduce the duration of hospitalisation and its associated costs. The average costs of treating major depression were about 4 times greater in the specialised hospital unit than in the standard hospital unit and the crisis intervention centre. The burden of payment was comparatively higher for the state and reduced for insurance companies when the treatment of major depressive disorders involved less in-patient care.     

A comparison of the cost-effectiveness of day treatment and residential treatment for children with severe behaviour problems.

This study compares the cost of treating 23 children admitted to a residential treatment unit in a psychiatric hospital and 23 children admitted to the same unit after it was converted to a day treatment program, through a retrospective chart review. The two groups were similar in age, gender, diagnosis, severity of pathology, family functioning and support, the number of subjects who dropped-out, and treatment outcome. The average length of stay on the unit dropped from 19.6 to 6.1 months, and the average cost of treatment per child decreased from $61,412 to $9,213 (Canadian dollars, adjusted for inflation). The sharp decrease in treatment time with day treatment may be the result of close links with community schools and maintaining the child in the family and community. The cost savings can be attributed to the shorter hospital stays and the lower operating costs of day treatment. Implications of these findings will be discussed with respect to health care policy including the need to raise awareness of day treatment as a cost-effective alternative to residential hospital treatment.     

A method for comparing two systems of acute 24-hour psychiatric care

A quasi-experimental method was developed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a public system of 24-hour acute psychiatric care in Santa Clara County, California, before and after a new treatment setting was introduced. The original system relied on a 54-bed psychiatric unit in a county general hospital; the new system consisted of a 20-bed unit in the general hospital plus a 45-bed nonhospital psychiatric health facility. The study demonstrated that the per diem cost of the psychiatric health facility was approximately 60 percent that of the original general hospital unit, but the average difference in cost per episode between the two systems was only about +25, primarily due to longer lengths of stay in the new system. In addition, patients treated in the new, combined system appeared sicker at discharge than those treated in the old system. The findings suggest the importance of simultaneously evaluating both cost and treatment effectiveness to make sure that one element does not dominate program direction at the expense of the other.     

Serving the chronic mentally ill in state and community hospitals

Acute psychiatric admission to three state and three community hospitals from the same geographic areas were examined in terms of patient charateristics, services, and costs. Overall, patients in state hospitals were more likely than patients in community hospitals to be admitted involuntarily, to have bizarre or assaultive behaviours as a precipitating cause of admission, to have recent community mental health involvement, to be referred by family or friends, to be living in dependent care at admission, and to have police initiated admissions; differences on other variables such as prior psychiatric hospitalizations, or in-hospital behaviors, were not significant. The length of stay was longer for state hospital patients who were also more likely to be discharged to an independent living situation. While actual costs per inpatient day were greater for community hospitals, the costs of treating patients in state hospitals, after reimbursements, were greater on both an inpatient day and episode basis. The average savings per inpatient day of treating all patients in community hospitals versus the hospitals they were in at the time of the study would be $7.38 per day. The conservative average cost savings per episode would be $440. This data suggests that it may be less expensive to the state to treat patients in community hospitals.     

Cost-effectiveness of critical time intervention to reduce homelessness among persons with mental illness

OBJECTIVES: Cost-effective programs are needed to assist homeless persons with severe mental illness in their transition from shelters to community living. The authors investigated the cost-effectiveness of the critical time intervention program, a time-limited adaptation of intensive case management, which has been shown to significantly reduce recurrent homelessness among men with severe mental illness. METHOD:S: Ninety-six study participants recruited from a psychiatric program in a men's public shelter from 1991 to 1993 were randomly assigned to the critical time intervention program or to usual services. Costs and housing outcomes for the two groups were examined over 18 months. RESULTS: Over the study period, the critical time intervention group and the usual services group incurred mean costs of 52,374 dollars and 51,649 dollars, respectively, for acute care services, outpatient services, housing and shelter services, criminal justice services, and transfer income. During the same period, the critical time intervention group experienced significantly fewer homeless nights than the usual care group (32 nights versus 90 nights). For each willingness-to-pay value--the additional price society is willing to spend for an additional nonhomeless night--greater than 152 dollars, the critical time intervention group exhibited a significantly greater net housing stability benefit, indicating cost-effectiveness, compared with usual care. CONCLUSION:S: Although difficult to conduct, studies of the cost-effectiveness of community mental health programs can yield rich information for policy makers and program planners. The critical time intervention program is not only an effective method to reduce recurrent homelessness among persons with severe mental illness but also represents a cost-effective alternative to the status quo.     

Innovative care models for treating psychosis

It is generally accepted that modern mental health care gives community treatment priority over partial or full inpatient treatment. The requirements for community treatment of severely ill and chronic psychiatric patients are complex and, together with financing by the different social insurance providers, may lead to a rather problematic fragmentation of health service supply. Schizophrenia is considered the most expensive mental illness in Germany. It is estimated that indirect costs (expressed in financial terms) are five times higher than the direct costs of treatment and care. Innovative concepts of psychosocial intervention show that case management and assertive community treatment reduce the hospitalisation rate and duration of inpatient treatment, enhance social integration, and find the approval of most patients. However, there is no empirical evidence supporting this "psychiatry with no beds". Consideration should be given to psychosocial interventions as an alternative to inpatient hospital treatment such as day hospital care, crisis houses, or acute home treatment.     

Homelessness among persons with serious mental illness in an enhanced community-based mental health system

OBJECTIVE: Homelessness and patterns of service use were examined among seriously mentally ill persons in an area with a well-funded community-based mental health system. METHODS: The sample consisted of 438 individuals referred between 1990 and 1992 to an extended acute care psychiatric hospital after a stay in a general hospital. Those experiencing an episode of homelessness, defined as an admission to a public shelter between 1990 and 1993, were compared with those who were residentially stable. Data from a longitudinal integrated database of public mental health and medical services were used to construct service utilization measures to test the mediating effect of outpatient mental health care on preventing homelessness. RESULTS: A homelessness rate of 24 percent was found among the 438 persons with serious mental illness. Those who experienced homelessness were more likely to be African American, receive general assistance, and have a comorbid substance abuse problem. They used significantly more inpatient psychiatric, emergency, and health care services than the subjects who did not become homeless. Forty to 50 percent of the homeless group received outpatient care during the year before and after their shelter episode. The number of persons who received intensive case management services increased after shelter admission. CONCLUSIONS: An enhanced community-based mental health system was not sufficient to prevent homelessness among high-risk persons with serious mental illness. Eleven percent of this group experienced homelessness after referral to an extended acute care facility. Strategies to prevent homelessness should be considered, perhaps at the time of discharge from the referring community hospital or extended acute care facility.     

Prevalence of psychiatric disorders and costs of care among adult enrollees in a Medicaid HMO

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about how psychiatric disorders affect health care costs in Medicaid programs. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders and costs of care for members of a Medicaid health maintenance organization (HMO) who had psychiatric disorders were examined. METHODS: A cross-sectional, observational analysis of adult Medicaid beneficiaries over a 12-month period was conducted by using data from a health plan that has both an HMO and a behavioral health carve-out. Claims data were analyzed for 6,500 adults who were eligible for services in both plans and who received medical or behavioral health services during calendar year 2000. RESULTS: Thirty-nine percent of the 6,500 adults had a psychiatric diagnosis. Of this subset, 67.2 percent had received no specialty mental health care in the previous year. The presence of any psychiatric diagnosis significantly increased total health care costs by a factor of 2.24 ($6,995 compared with $3,121 for persons with no psychiatric diagnosis) and costs to the medical plan by a factor of 1.77 ($4,690 compared with $2,649). For beneficiaries with bipolar or psychotic diagnoses, higher health plan costs were due predominately to increases in pharmacy and specialty mental health costs. In contrast, higher costs for beneficiaries with depression, anxiety, or substance use diagnoses were attributable to greater use of general medical services. CONCLUSIONS: An analysis of claims data showed that adult Medicaid beneficiaries have exceptionally high rates of comorbid psychiatric conditions, which were associated with significantly higher medical and pharmaceutical costs. The high cost of these beneficiaries to the medical plan has policy implications in terms of the importance of addressing mental health issues in Medicaid general medical populations.     

Psychiatric units in general hospitals: 1979.

Despite the network of community mental health centers, the general hospital has become the focal point for the delivery of mental health care in the U.S. The author presents an overview of the psychiatric unit in the general hospital, including its history, structure and function, and its relationship to the hospital itself and to the continuum of mental health services in the community. The units' goals are not clearly defined but appear to be crisis intervention, acute treatment, correction of decompensation, prevention of chronicity, and speedy return of the patient to the community; there is little attempt to serve chronic patients. Paradoxically, the psychiatric unit also does not serve the hospital it is part of, as it rarely accepts patients from medical-surgical wards. The author summarizes evaluation studies related to general-hospital psychiatric units and recommends, among other points, truly evaluating the effects of short-term treatment and eliminating the current competition for the shortest stay.     

Cost-effectiveness of systematic depression treatment for high utilizers of general medical care

BACKGROUND: Expanding access to high-quality depression treatment will depend on the balance of incremental benefits and costs. We examine the incremental cost-effectiveness of an organized depression management program for high utilizers of medical care. METHODS: Computerized records at 3 health maintenance organizations were used to identify adult patients with outpatient medical visit rates above the 85th percentile for 2 consecutive years. A 2-step screening process identified patients with current depressive disorders, who were not in active treatment. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to continued usual care (n = 189) or to an organized depression management program (n = 218). The program included patient education, antidepressant pharmacotherapy initiated in primary care (when appropriate), systematic telephone monitoring of adherence and outcomes, and psychiatric consultation as needed. Clinical outcomes (assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale on 4 occasions throughout 12 months) were converted to measures of "depression-free days." Health services utilization and costs were estimated using health plan-standardized claims. RESULTS: The intervention program led to an adjusted increase of 47.7 depression-free days throughout 12 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 28.2-67.8 days). Estimated cost increases were $1008 per year (95% CI, $534-$1383) for outpatient health services, $1974 per year for total health services costs (95% CI, $848-$3171), and $2475 for health services plus time-in-treatment costs (95% CI, $880-$4138). Including total health services and time-in-treatment costs, estimated incremental cost per depression-free day was $51.84 (95% CI, $17.37-$108.47). CONCLUSIONS: Among high utilizers of medical care, systematic identification and treatment of depression produce significant and sustained improvements in clinical outcomes as well as significant increases in health services costs.     

Home or hospital for stroke Rehabilitation? Results of a randomized controlled trial : II: cost minimization analysis at 6 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The goal of the present study was to examine the resource and economic implications of an early hospital discharge and home-based rehabilitation scheme for patients with acute stroke. METHODS: A cost minimization analysis in conjunction with a randomized controlled trial was carried out at 2 affiliated teaching hospitals in the southern metropolitan region of Adelaide, South Australia, between 1997 and 1998. Eighty-six hospitalized patients with acute stroke who required rehabilitation were randomized to receive both early hospital discharge and home-based rehabilitation, or conventional in-hospital rehabilitation and community care. Direct and indirect costs related to stroke rehabilitation were calculated, including hospital bed days, home-based intervention program, community services, and personal expenses during the 6 months after randomization. RESULTS: The mean cost per patient was lower for patients randomized to the early hospital discharge and home-based rehabilitation ($8040) compared with those who received conventional care ($10 054). This cost saving was not statistically significant (P=0.14). However, sensitivity analyses indicated that the cost of home-based rehabilitation was consistently lower than that of conventional care except when hospital costs were assumed to be 50% less than those used in the main analysis. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that the cost of the home-based program was significantly related to a patient's level of disability after adjustment for age, comorbidity, and the presence or absence of a caregiver. CONCLUSIONS: The early hospital discharge and home-based rehabilitation scheme was less costly than conventional hospital care for patients with stroke. Limitation of the provision of such services to patients with mild disability is likely to be most cost effective.     

Cost-effectiveness and cost offset of a collaborative care intervention for primary care patients with panic disorder

BACKGROUND: A collaborative care (CC) intervention for patients with panic disorder that provided increased patient education and integrated a psychiatrist into primary care was associated with improved symptomatic and functional outcomes. This report evaluates the incremental cost-effectiveness and potential cost offset of a CC treatment program for primary care patients with panic disorder from the perspective of the payer. METHODS: We randomly assigned 115 primary care patients with panic disorder to a CC intervention that included systematic patient education and approximately 2 visits with an on-site consulting psychiatrist, compared with usual primary care. Telephone assessments of clinical outcomes were performed at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Use of health care services and costs were assessed using administrative data from the primary care clinics and self-report data. RESULTS: Patients receiving CC experienced a mean of 74.2 more anxiety-free days during the 12-month intervention (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.8-122.0). The incremental mental health cost of the CC intervention was $205 (95% CI, -$135 to $501), with the additional mental health costs of the intervention explained by expenditures for antidepressant medication and outpatient mental health visits. Total outpatient cost was $325 (95% CI, -$1460 to $448) less for the CC than for the usual care group. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for total ambulatory cost was -$4 (95% CI, -$23 to $14) per anxiety-free day. Results of a bootstrap analysis suggested a 0.70 probability that the CC intervention was dominant (eg, lower costs and greater effectiveness). CONCLUSION: A CC intervention for patients with panic disorder was associated with significantly more anxiety-free days, no significant differences in total outpatient costs, and a distribution of the cost-effectiveness ratio based on total outpatient costs that suggests a 70% probability that the intervention was dominant, compared with usual care.     

The impact of closing a state psychiatric hospital on the county mental health system and its clients.

OBJECTIVE: This three-year study examined the impact of closing a state psychiatric hospital in 1991 on service utilization patterns and related costs for clients with and without serious mental illness. METHODS: The cohort consisted of all individuals discharged from state hospitals and those diverted from inpatient to community services and enrolled in the unified systems project, a state-county initiative to build up the service capacity of the community system. The size of the cohort grew from 1,533 enrollees to 2,240 over the three years. Information on the types, amounts, and cost of all services received by each enrollee was compiled from multiple administrative databases, beginning two years before enrollment and for up to three years after. The data were analyzed to reveal patterns of and changes in service utilization and related costs. RESULTS: Replacement of most inpatient services with residential and ambulatory services resulted in significant cost reduction. For project enrollees, a 94 percent reduction in state hospital services resulted in cost savings of more than $45 million during the three-year evaluation period. These savings more than offset the funds used to expand community services. Overall, the net savings to the system for mental health services for this group was $3.4 million over three years. CONCLUSIONS: The hospital closure and infusion of funds into community services produced desired growth of those services. The project reduced reliance on state psychiatric hospitalization and demonstrated that persons with serious mental illness can be effectively treated and maintained in the community.     

Gemeindeintegrierte Akutversorgung Möglichkeiten und Grenzen

The shift of psychiatric care from the hospital to the community has been accompanied by a reduction of hospital beds and shortened durations of inpatient treatment, but also by an increase in admissions. This evolution may be largely attributed to the prime focus of community mental health institutions on rehabilitation. The continued implementation of reforms in psychiatric care is contingent upon effectively halting the "revolving door phenomenon" by incorporating community-integrated treatment approaches into the care of acutely ill patients. Since the mid-1960s, a series of studies have established the efficacy of two community-integrated modalities for the treatment of acute psychiatric illness, i.e. home-based and day hospital treatment. In general, these approaches not only seem to be as effective as inpatient care for certain groups of patients but also reduce their need of hospitalisation, thereby contributing towards a cost effective, comprehensive psychiatric care system.     

A Community Approach to Helping Disabled Children in Jamaica

Private sector hospitals are the main provider of mental health care in Japan. More than four-fifths of psychiatric beds are privately owned. Unlike Western countries, private sector hospitals in Japan serve all citizens enrolled in the universal public health insurance system. Private sector hospitals in Japan are only allowed to be nonprofit corporations. Mental health system is still inpatient oriented. Mental health professionals have recognized the importance of movements toward community mental health, but changes have been slow. The shortage of social resources in the community is one reason why many patients have experienced prolonged inpatient care unnecessarily. Although the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has declared its commitment to mental health reform, it is very difficult to establish public community mental health system from scratch because of financial problems. The Japanese mental health system received only 0.38 percent of the gross domestic product in funding. In Japan, some hold an overly optimistic view that hospitalization costs can be cut by transferring inpatients to residential community care facilities and that the savings generated can be used to pay for acute psychiatric care. However, this proposition is unfeasible because hospitalization costs have been reduced to a level equal to or below that of residential care costs in the other developed countries. Japan has established a system called hospital ward specialization. Under this system, psychiatric wards have been divided into units specializing in various areas of care. This system is not helping to decrease the number of hospital beds or the inpatient populations and has been found to be hindering deinstitutionalization in Japan. It will be necessary in the future to transition from a medical fee-for-service system that promotes long-term hospitalization and large-scale expansion to one in which downsizing correlates with better financial results.     

Short-term hospitalization for suicidal patients within a crisis intervention service

This article describes management of two cases in a short-term medical/surgical setting developed by a crisis intervention service in a general community hospital. These patients have common links of suicidal threats, ambivalence about psychiatric hospitalization, and noncompliant character structures that lead to a manipulation of the mental health system. Cases selected are representative of a subset of patients who historically don't do well on a regular inpatient unit. We will examine the clinical change during short-term hospitalization, explore psychodynamic issues, and describe the integration within the overall mission of an acute care general hospital. The cost-saving implication for brief hospitalization in a medical/surgical setting for maintaining chronic mental patients in the community is also discussed.     

Reducing Length of Acute Inpatient Hospitalization Using a Residential Step Down Model for Patients with Serious Mental Illness

Psychiatric inpatient bed numbers have been markedly reduced in recent decades often resulting in long emergency department wait times for acutely ill psychiatric patients. The authors describe a model utilizing short-term residential treatment to substitute for acute inpatient care when the barrier to discharge for patients with serious mental illness (SMI) is finding appropriate community placement. Thirty-eight patients (community hospital (n?=?30) and a state hospital (n?=?8)) were included. Clinical variables, pre-/post-step down length of stay, and adverse outcomes are reported. Thirty of the 38 patients completed treatment on the residential unit and were discharged to the community. Five of the patients required readmission to an inpatient unit and the other three had pre-planned state hospital discharges. The majority of patients with SMI awaiting placement can be stepped down to residential treatment, potentially freeing up an inpatient bed for an acutely ill patient. Reforms in healthcare funding are necessary to incentivize such an approach on a larger scale, despite likely cost savings.