The Effect of Comprehensive Behavioral Health Parity on Choice of Provider
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9100345 |
|---|---|
| Authors | K John McConnell (0000-0003-1280-3196, Oregon Health & Science University, corresponding author), Samuel H N Gast (corresponding author), Bentson H Mcfarland (0000-0001-9149-5616, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 527-533 |
| Publication date | 2012-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Care (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0025-7079 • E-ISSN: 1537-1948 |
| Publisher | Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1097/mlr.0b013e318245a60f |
| PMID | 22584888 |
| PMCID | PMC3353151 |
| OpenAlex | W2014927251 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
BACKGROUND: "Parity" laws remove treatment limitations for mental health and substance-abuse services covered by commercial health plans. A number of studies of parity implementations have suggested that parity does not lead to large increases in utilization or expenditures for behavioral health services. However, less is known about how parity might affect changes in patients' choice of providers for behavioral health treatment. RESEARCH DESIGN: We compared initiation and provider choice among 46,470 Oregonians who were affected by Oregon's 2007 parity law. Oregon is the only state to have enacted a parity law that places restrictions on how plans manage behavioral health services. This approach has been adopted federally in the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. In 1 set of analyses, we assess initiation and provider choice using a difference-in-difference approach, with a matched group of commercially insured Oregonians who were exempt from parity. In a second set of analyses, we assess the impact of distance on provider choice. RESULTS: Overall, parity in Oregon was associated with a slight increase (0.5% to 0.8%) in initiations with masters-level specialists, and relatively little changes for generalist physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists. Patients are particularly sensitive to distance for nonphysician specialists. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act may lead to a shift in the use of nonphysician specialists and away from generalist physicians. The extent to which these changes occur is likely to be contingent on the ease and accessibility of nonphysician specialists
Addiction · Equity (law) · Generalist and specialist species · Mental health · Parity (physics) · Political science · Psychiatry · Substance abuse · Healthcare Policy and Management · Law · Medicine · Mental Health Treatment and Access · Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare · Psychology
Estimation of Causal Effects using Propensity Score Weighting
Semiparametric Efficiency in Multivariate Regression Models with Missing Data
A critical appraisal of propensity‐score matching in the medical literature between 1996 and 2003
Balance diagnostics for comparing the distribution of baseline covariates between treatment groups in propensity‐score matched samples
Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity
Provider Choice and Continuity for the Treatment of Depression
The Impact of Parity on Major Depression Treatment Quality in the Federal Employees’ Health Benefits Program After Parity Implementation
| Highly cited | No |
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