Accessing Specialty Behavioral Health Treatment in Private Health Plans

Connecting people to mental health and substance abuse services is critical, given the extent of unmet need. The way health plans structure access to care can play a role. This study examined treatment entry procedures for specialty behavioral health care in private health plans and their relationship with behavioral health contracting arrangements, focusing primarily on initial entry into outpatient treatment. The data source was a nationally representative health plan survey on behavioral health services in 2003 (N = 368 plans with 767 managed care products; 83% response rate). Most health plan products initially authorized six or more outpatient visits if authorization was required, did not routinely conduct telephonic clinical assessment, had standards for timely access, and monitored wait time. Products with carve-outs differed on several treatment entry dimensions. Findings suggest that health plans focus on timely access and typically do not heavily manage initial entry into outpatient treatment.     

Discontinuation of cost sharing in Uganda

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of ending cost sharing on use of outpatient services and how this was perceived by health workers and members of a health unit management committee. METHODS: From 10 districts across Uganda, 78 health facilities were selected. Attendance at these facilities was assessed for eight months before and 12 months after cost sharing ended. The data represented 1 966 522 outpatient visits. Perceptions about the impact of ending cost sharing were obtained from the 73 health workers and 78 members of the health unit management committee who were available. FINDINGS: With the end of cost sharing, the mean monthly number of new visits increased by 17 928 (53.3%), but among children aged <5 years the increase was 3611 (27.3%). Mean monthly reattendances increased by 2838 (81.3%) among children aged <5 years and 1889 (24.3%) among all people. Attendances for immunizations, antenatal clinics, and family planning all increased, despite these services having always been free. Health workers reported a decline in morale, and many health unit management committees no longer met regularly. CONCLUSION: Use of all services increased - even those that had never before been subject to fees. The loss of some autonomy by the health facility and diminished community governance of health facilities may have long term negative effects.     

Veterans Health Administration and Medicare Outpatient Health Care Utilization by Older Rural and Urban New England Veterans

CONTEXT: Older veterans often use both the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Medicare to obtain health care services. PURPOSE: The authors sought to compare outpatient medical service utilization of Medicare-enrolled rural veterans with their urban counterparts in New England. METHODS: The authors combined VHA and Medicare databases and identified veterans who were age 65 and older and enrolled in Medicare fee-for-service plans, and they obtained records of all their VHA services in New England between 1997 and 1999. The authors used ZIP codes to designate rural or urban residence and categorized outpatient utilization into primary care, individual mental health care, non-mental health specialty care, or emergency room care. FINDINGS: Compared with their urban counterparts, veterans living in rural settings used significantly fewer VHA and Medicare-funded primary care, specialist care, and mental health care visits in all 3 years examined (P<.001 for all). Compared with urban veterans, veterans living in rural settings used fewer VHA emergency department services in 1998 and 1999 but more Medicare-funded emergency department visits in 1997. The authors found some evidence of substitution of Medicare for VHA emergency visits in rural veterans, but no other evidence of like-service substitution. Rural veterans were more reliant on Medicare for primary care and on VHA services for specialty and mental health care. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that rural access to federally funded health care is restricted relative to urban access. Older veterans may choose different systems of care for different health care services. With poor access to primary care, rural veterans may substitute emergency room visits for routine care.     

The impact of team-based primary care on health care services utilization and costs: Quebec’s family medicine groups

We investigate the effects on health care costs and utilization of team-based primary care delivery: Quebec’s Family Medicine Groups (FMGs). FMGs include extended hours, patient enrolment and multidisciplinary teams, but they maintain the same remuneration scheme (fee-for-service) as outside FMGs. In contrast to previous studies, we examine the impacts of organizational changes in primary care settings in the absence of changes to provider payment and outside integrated care systems. We built a panel of administrative data of the population of elderly and chronically ill patients, characterizing all individuals as FMG enrollees or not. Participation in FMGs is voluntary and we address potential selection bias by matching on GP propensity scores, using inverse probability of treatment weights at the patient level, and then estimating difference-in-differences models. We also use appropriate modelling strategies to account for the distributions of health care cost and utilization data. We find that FMGs significantly decrease patients’ health care services utilization and costs in outpatient settings relative to patients not in FMGs. The number of primary care visits decreased by 11% per patient per year among FMG enrolees and specialist visits declined by 6%. The declines in costs were of roughly equal magnitude. We found no evidence of an effect on hospitalizations, their associated costs, or the costs of ED visits. These results provide support for the idea that primary care organizational reforms can have impacts on the health care system in the absence of changes to physician payment mechanisms. The extent to which the decline in GP visits represents substitution with other primary care providers warrants further investigation.     

Depression, service utilization, and treatment costs among Medicare elderly: gender differences.

OBJECTIVE: To compare gender differences in mood disorders, service utilization, and health care costs among a random sample of Medicare elderly beneficiaries of Tennessee. DATA SOURCES: Medicare expenditure data from a 5% random sample of Tennessee Medicare beneficiaries (n = 35,673) were examined for 1991-1993. The physician reimbursement files provided data relative to ICD-9 diagnostic codes, physician visits, and the cost of physician services provided. Other service utilization and cost data were obtained for the sample from the outpatient, home health, skilled nursing, hospice and inpatient files. STUDY DESIGN: The dependent variables were: (i) patients with ICD-9 diagnosis for a mood disorder (major depression and other depression), (ii) service utilization (number of outpatient visits, skilled nursing visits, home health visits, physician visits, emergency visits, and inpatient days), and (iii) health care costs (dollar amount of physician cost, outpatient cost, inpatient cost, total mental health cost, total health cost, and other cost). The independent variable was gender. PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: Chi-square tests showed that among the patients with a mood disorder, females had a significantly higher incidence than males of major depression (1.3% vs. .4%, respectively, p < .001) and other depression (1.6% vs. .6%, respectively, p < .001). Further, t-test results indicated that females diagnosed with major depression utilized significantly more outpatient services than males (3.2 vs. 2.6, respectively, p < .04). Total health care costs for those with other depression were significantly higher for males than females ($15,060 vs. $10,240, respectively, p < .002). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that mood disorders, outpatient services, and total mental health costs are higher for females than males; however, total health care costs are higher for males than females.     

Costing of commune health station visits for provider payment reform in Vietnam

Expanding effective coverage in Vietnam will require better use of available resources and placing higher priority on primary care. The way providers are currently paid does not give priority to primary care and does not reflect the costs of delivering services. This paper aims to estimate the unit costs of primary care visits at commune health stations (CHS) in selected areas in Vietnam. Seventy-six CHS from two provinces in northern Vietnam were studied. Costs were calculated from the perspective of the CHS using the top-down costing using the step-down cost accounting technique in order to estimate the full cost of delivering services. On average, the cost of one outpatient visit in mountainous, rural and urban CHSs was VND 49,521 (US$2.40), VND 41,375 (US$2.01) and VND 39,794 (US$1.93), respectively. Personnel costs accounted for the highest share of total costs followed by medicines. The share of operating costs was minimal. On average, CHSs recover 18.9% of their total cost for an outpatient visit from social insurance payments or fees that can be charged patients. The results provide valuable information for policy-makers as they revise the provider payment methods to better reflect the costs of services and give greater priority to primary care.     

Considerations in predicting mental health care use: Implications for managed care plans

Managed care plans and other health care providers face a difficult task in predicting outpatient mental health services use. Existing research offers some guidance, but our knowledge of which factors influence use is confounded by methodological problems and sampling constraints. Consequently, available findings are insufficient for developing accurate predictions, which managed care plans need in order to formulate fiscally responsible service delivery contracts. This article reviews the primary data sources and research on ambulatory mental health services. On the basis of this review, the probability and intensity of outpatient visits are estimated. The primary predictors of use are also examined because they may help managed care plans forecast use by a given population or group of enrollees. Gender, age, race, education, health status, and insurance coverage are several variables surfacing as statistically significant predictors of use. The implications for planning capitated mental health services are discussed.     

Healthcare Charges and Use in Commercially Insured Children Enrolled in Managed Care Health Plans in Washington State

Objective: To determine the relative importance of enrollee, physician, medical group, and healthcare plan characteristics as determinants of healthcare use and expenditures in commercially insured children <18 years of age enrolled in managed care health plans. We focused on the effects of age and benefit level, the two most important predictors of cost and utilization in our study of adults. Methods: This study included 67,432 commercially insured children who were between 1 and 18 years of age, and were cared for by 790 primary care physicians, who practiced in 60 medical care groups in Washington State. Plan enrollment and utilization data for 1994 were linked to a survey of medical care groups contracting with three managed care health plans. Benefit level for each enrollee was defined as low, medium, or high and was based on cost sharing by the health plan for hospitalization, outpatient care, and emergency department services. The three outcome measures included estimated total per member per year charges, number of ambulatory visits, and hospital days. Results: In multivariate analysis, enrollee age was the most important determinant of total charges, with younger children incurring higher charges and utilization. For children 5 years and younger, mean total per member per year charges were $617 in the low-benefit category and $878 in the high category (p < .0001). These differences were less apparent for children 6–12 years ($355 versus $420, p = .012), and were not statistically significant for children 13 years and older ($503 versus $552, p = .14). The annual number of visits increased with benefit level for children of all ages. Conclusions: Enrollee age and benefit level were the most important determinants of healthcare use and expenditures in children enrolled in managed care health plans.     

A randomized trial of primary intensive care to reduce hospital admissions in patients with high utilization of inpatient services.

Randomized controlled trials of case management in primary care have been infrequent and contradictory. The aim of this study was to determine if a clinic-based ambulatory case management intervention, Primary Intensive Care (PIC), would reduce hospital utilization and total cost and/or improve health outcomes among primary care patients with a recent history of high use of inpatient services. Current patients with > or =2 hospital admissions per year in the 12-18 months prior to recruitment in an urban primary care clinic were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial. Patients were randomized to the PIC intervention or usual care. PIC patients underwent a comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment with the result being a team-generated plan. The PIC team nurse practitioner served as case manager for the 12 months of follow-up and provided services designed to implement the care plan for those in the experimental group. Health care use, function, and a medication adherence scale were measured at baseline and at 12 months. There were no significant differences when either comparing the number of admissions pre and post enrollment within groups or the followup results post intervention between groups. A similar result was noted for the number of emergency department visits. The number of clinic visits increased in the intervention group by 1.5 visits per year which was statistically significant when compared to the control group. Overall functional status, health outcomes, and the Mental Health Functional Status subscore did not change significantly in either group during the study. We were unable to detect a difference in hospital use or functional status, mental health function, or medication adherence among patients who require frequent hospital admissions using our intervention.     

Physician response to the United Mine Workers'' cost-sharing program: the other side of the coin.

The effect of cost sharing on health services utilization is analyzed from a new perspective, that is, its effects on physician response to cost sharing. A primary data set was constructed using medical records and billing files from a large multispecialty group practice during the three-year period surrounding the introduction of cost sharing to the United Mine Workers Health and Retirement Fund. This same group practice also served an equally large number of patients covered by United Steelworkers'' health benefit plans, for which similar utilization data were available. The questions addressed in this interinsurer study are: (1) to what extent does a physician''s treatment of medically similar cases vary, following a drop in patient visits as a result of cost sharing? and (2) what is the impact, if any, on costs of care for other patients in the practice (e.g., "spillover effects" such as cost shifting)? Answers to these kinds of questions are necessary to predict the effects of cost sharing on overall health care costs. A fixed-effects model of physician service use was applied to data on episodes of treatment for all patients in a private group practice. This shows that the introduction of cost sharing to some patients in a practice does, in fact, increase the treatment costs to other patients in the same practice who remain under stable insurance plans. The analysis demonstrates that when the economic effects of cost sharing on physician service use are analyzed for all patients within a physician practice, the findings are remarkably different from those of an analysis limited to those patients directly affected by cost sharing.     

Toward an understanding of health services use in women with binge eating disorder

OBJECTIVE: This study examined health services use in community samples of 102 white and 60 black women with binge eating disorder (BED), 164 white and 85 black healthy comparison women, and 86 white and 21 black women with a noneating Axis I psychiatric disorder. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Participants were matched on age, ethnicity, and education and were asked about their use of emergency room visits, outpatient physician visits for medical care, outpatient psychotherapy visits, and days spent in the hospital over the previous 12 months. Total health services use was computed. RESULTS: There were no between-group differences in outpatient physician visits or inpatient hospital days. Relative to healthy comparison women, women with BED and women with other Axis I disorders had increased total health services use, psychotherapy visits, and emergency department visits. Relative to women with noneating Axis I disorders, women with BED had less use of psychotherapy visits. Although obese white women were more likely to report emergency department visits than obese black women were, nonobese white women were less likely to report emergency department visits than nonobese black women were. DISCUSSION: That health services use by women with BED compared more with that of women with other Axis I disorders than with that of healthy women suggested that BED has clinical significance and is not benign in terms of its impact on the health care system. It appeared, however, that despite the availability of effective treatments, few women with BED received psychotherapy.     

Optimal health insurance for multiple goods and time periods

We examine the efficiency-based arguments for second-best optimal health insurance with multiple treatment goods and multiple time periods. Correlated shocks across health care goods and over time interact with complementarity and substitutability to affect optimal cost sharing. Health care goods that are substitutes or have positively correlated demand shocks should have lower optimal patient cost sharing. Positive serial correlations of demand shocks and uncompensated losses that are positively correlated with covered health services also reduce optimal cost sharing. Our results rationalize covering pharmaceuticals and outpatient spending more fully than is implied by static, one good, or one period models.     

Mental health and substance abuse parity: a case study of Ohio's state employee program

BACKGROUND: In the United States, insurance benefits for treating alcohol, drug abuse and mental health (ADM) problems have been much more limited than medical care benefits. To change that situation, more than 30 states were considering legislation that requires equal benefits for ADM and medical care ("parity") in the past year. Uncertainty about the cost consequences of such proposed legislation remains a major stumbling block. There has been no information about the actual experience of implementing parity benefits under managed care or the effects on access to care and utilization. AIMS OF THE STUDY: Document the experience of the State of Ohio with adopting full parity for ADM care for its state employee program under managed care. Ohio provides an unusually long time series with seven years of managed behavioral health benefits, which allows us to study inflationary trends in a plan with unlimited ADM benefits. METHODS: Primarily a case study, we describe the implementation of the program and track utilization, and costs of ADM care from 1989 to 1997. We use a variety of administrative and claims data and reports provided by United Behavioral Health and the state of Ohio. The analysis of the utilization and cost effect of parity and managed care is pre-post, with a multiyear follow-up period. RESULTS: The switch from unmanaged indemnity care to managed carve-out care was followed by a 75% drop in inpatient days and a 40% drop in outpatient visits per 1000 members, despite the simultaneous increase in benefits. The subsequent years saw a continuous decline in inpatient days and an increased use of intermediate services, such as residential care and intensive outpatient care. The number of outpatient visits stabilized in the range of 500-550 visits per 1000. There was no indication that costs started to increase during the study period; instead, costs continued to decline. A somewhat different picture emerges when comparing utilization under HMOs with utilization under a carve-out with expanded benefits. In that case, the expansion of benefits led to a significant jump in outpatient utilization and intermediate services, while there was a small decrease in inpatient days. Insurance payments in 1996/1997 were almost identical to the estimated costs under HMOs in 1993. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to the emerging inflation anxiety regarding overall health care costs, managed care can provide long-run cost containment for ADM care even when patient copayments are reduced and coverage limits are lifted. This may differentiate ADM care from medical care and reasons for this difference include the state of management techniques (more advanced for ADM care), complexity of treatments (much higher technology utilization in medical care) and demographic factors (medical, but not behavioral health, costs increase as the population ages). IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY: The experience of the state of Ohio demonstrates that parity level benefits for ADM care are affordable under managed care. It suggests that the concerns about costs that have stymied ADM policy proposals are unfounded, as long as one is willing to accept managed care. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: The continuing decline in costs raises concerns that levels of care may become insufficient. While concerns about costs being too high dominate the policy hurdle for parity legislation at this moment, the next step in research is to address quality of care or health outcomes, areas about which even less is known than about costs.     

Accountable Care for the Poor and Underserved: Minnesota’s Hennepin Health Model

Hennepin Health provides integrated medical and social services to low-income Medicaid patients in a large county located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Data sharing is critical to program operations along with care coordination provided by community health workers. Early evidence indicates fewer emergency department visits and increased use of outpatient primary care. By focusing on prevention, coordination, and team-based care, the county hopes to improve individuals’ quality of life while reducing costs through better care management and reductions in emergency department use.Hennepin Health represents a new model of integrated care targeted to low-income individuals with complex health and social needs—needs very similar to the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion population. The program is supported by enhanced data integration to better coordinate medical care with other needed social services in a capitated Accountable Care Organization (ACO) framework. The positive outcomes achieved and the ability to reinvest in the model have helped to garner political support and have motivated providers and care teams who see the opportunities to make a difference in the lives of a largely disenfranchised patient population. Hennepin Health provides an integrated care management model that other care plans can use to improve care and lower costs for the Medicaid expansion population under the Affordable Care Act.     

Patterns of health services use and costs in patients with mental disorders in primary care

OBJECTIVES: To determine the pattern of services use and costs of patients requiring care for mental disorders (MD) in primary care in the context of routine clinical practice. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of patients older than 15 consulting primary care at least once for MD, attended by 5 primary care teams in 2004. A comparative group was formed with the remaining outpatients without MD. The main measurements were age, gender, case-mix/comorbidity and health resource utilization and corresponding outpatient costs (drugs, diagnostic tests and visits). Multiple logistic regression analysis and ANCOVA models were applied. RESULTS: A total of 64,072 patients were assessed, of which 11,128 had some type of MD (17.4%; 95% CI, 16.7-18.1). Patients consulting for MD had a greater number of health problems (6.7 vs. 4.7; p < 0.0001) and higher resource consumption, mainly all-type medical visits/patient/year (10.7 vs. 7.2; p < 0.0001). The mean annual cost per patient was higher for patients with MD (851.5 vs. 519.2 euros; p < 0.0001), and this difference remained significant after adjusting by age, sex and comorbidities, with a differential cost of euros 72.7 (95% CI, 59.2-85.9). All components of outpatient management costs were significantly higher in the MD group. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatients seeking care for some type of MD had a high number of comorbidities and showed greater annual cost per patient in the primary care setting.     

Effect of a gatekeeper plan on health services use and charges: a randomized trial.

A randomized trial was conducted to determine the effectiveness of a health care plan which uses physicians as gatekeepers to control health services use and charges. New enrollees in United Healthcare (UHC), an independent practice association, were randomly assigned to the standard UHC plan requiring a gatekeeper, or to an alternate plan with equal benefits but without a gatekeeper. Individuals in both plans were similar in demographic characteristics, perceived health status, and other health insurance coverage. The gatekeeper plan had 6 percent lower total charges per enrollee than the plan without a gatekeeper. There were minor differences in hospital use and charges. Ambulatory charges were $21 lower per person per year in the plan with a gatekeeper (95% CI = -39.9, -2.1) and these were due to .3 fewer visits to specialists (95% CI = -0.50, -0.10). We conclude that a health plan which incorporates incentives and penalties for physicians to act as gatekeepers can reduce the cost of ambulatory services by limiting specialist visits.     

Utilization of Health Services in Physician Offices and Outpatient Clinics by Adolescents and Young Women in the United States: Implications for Improving Access to Reproductive Health Services

PurposeWe examined utilization patterns of adolescents and young women as they seek general and reproductive health services in physician offices and hospital outpatient clinics.MethodsWe analyzed physician office visits in the 2003–2006 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys, and hospital outpatient clinic visits in the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys, to examine utilization patterns of females aged 9–26 years by 2-year age intervals and other characteristics such as physician specialty or clinic type.ResultsThe number of visits to primary care physician offices increased with age, from 4.9 million for ages 9–10 years to 9.0 million for ages 25–26 years. The proportion of visits made to obstetrician-gynecologists and family practitioners increased with age, and by ages 15–16 years fewer than half of all visits to primary care providers were made to pediatricians. The proportion of visits to family practitioners increased from 25% at ages 9–10 years to 30% at ages 25–26 years. By ages 17–18 years, a larger proportion of visits were made to obstetrician-gynecologists (33% of 7.0 million visits) and to family practitioners (34%) than to pediatricians (23%). The proportion of visits for reproductive health services peaked at 53% of 7.5 million physician visits at ages 20–21 years. Similar utilization patterns were observed for the 11.0 million hospital outpatient visits to primary care providers.ConclusionsBecause adolescents and young women most commonly utilize healthcare services provided by obstetrician-gynecologists and family practitioners, these specialties should be priority targets for interventions to improve the quality and availability of reproductive health services.     

Effects of a cost-sharing exemption on use of preventive services at one large employer

In 2004, Alcoa introduced a new health benefit for a portion of its workforce, which eliminated cost sharing for preventive care while increasing cost sharing for many other services. In this era of increased consumerism, Alcoa's benefit redesign constituted an effort to reduce health care costs while preserving use of targeted services. Taking advantage of a unique natural experiment, we find that Alcoa was able to maintain rates of preventive service use. This evidence suggests that differential cost sharing can be used to preserve the use of critical health care services.