Content by Keyword: Mental Health and Substance Abuse

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Notes

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Notes

Ms. Blasinsky is now at CSR, Inc. Dr. Patton is now at Westat. Dr. Barry is now at Yale University School of Medicine. While at ASPE, Dr. Hennessy initiated the evaluation and served as the initial Government Project Officer. Dr. Hennessy is now at SAMHSA. The PERT term general medical care is used in this paper to dis
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References

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. References

Ai, C., & Norton, E. C. (2003). Interaction Terms in Logit and Probit Models. Economic Letters (80): 123-129. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. (1993). Depression in primary care: volume 2. Treatment of major depression . Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. (
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Summary of Findings on the Impact of Parity in

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Summary of Findings on the Impact of Parity in the FEHB Program - Claims and Encounter Data

Utilization and Cost Descriptive Analysis of All Enrollees
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Summary of Findings on Implementing Parity in the

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Summary of Findings on Implementing Parity in the FEHB Program

Descriptive findings on FEHB plans’ parity implementation were obtained using data for two time periods (pre- and post-parity) from the Parity Reporting Requirement (PRR), which was completed by all FEHB plans that remained in the FEHB Program continuously from 1999 to 2002. 37 Findings on FEHB plans’ benefit design changes in response to the
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Research Questions and Findings in Brief

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Research Questions and Findings in Brief

Implementation of the Parity Policy Key Implementation Research Questions Did all FEHB plans comply with the parity policy? How did the FEHB parity policy affect MH/SA benefit design and management? How did the FEHB parity policy affect the benefit design and management for general medical care? Did FEHB plans incur additional expense
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Introduction

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Introduction

This chapter summarizes the evaluation’s major findings on the implementation and impact of the parity policy on mental health and substance abuse (MH/SA) service utilization, cost, and quality. We first present a brief overview of the evaluation’s key research questions and findings. We then highlight the main findings on implementing the FEH
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V. Summary of Evaluation Findings

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. V. Summary of Evaluation Findings

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Impact on Quality of Care

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Impact on Quality of Care

The PERT studied the effect of parity on quality of care for adults by using established standards of care for treating specific disorders, i.e., depression and substance abuse, to create indicators of quality following the methods developed by several investigators (c.f. Berndt et. al 1997; Lehman and Steinwachs, 1998). The methods described in t
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Impact on Access to Care, Service Use, and Cost

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Impact on Access to Care, Service Use, and Cost

Implementing parity required changing the nominal benefits for coverage of treating mental health and substance abuse (MH/SA) disorders. The dimensions of the nominal benefit that are most often affected when parity policies are implemented are:
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Overview

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Overview

This chapter addresses the intermediate and long-term impacts of the parity policy on access to care, service use, cost, and quality of care, as illustrated in the evaluation logic model in Figure II-I. The research questions, data sources and collection methods, and analysis methods relating to cost, access, utilization, and quality that we summa
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IV. Impact of Parity

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. IV. Impact of Parity

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Summary of Findings on the Implementation of

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Summary of Findings on the Implementation of Parity in the FEHB Program

All FEHB plans complied with the parity policy. No plan left the FEHB Program to avoid implementing the parity policy, and plans enhanced their MH/SA nominal benefits as required by the policy change. According to most (two-thirds) of the FEHB plans, they incurred no added administrative cost in implementing the parity policy.
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FEHB Network Providers’ Experience Implementing

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. FEHB Network Providers’ Experience Implementing Parity

Provider focus groups were conducted to assess providers’ awareness and perceptions of the parity benefit implementation. Each focus group was audiotaped and verbatim transcripts prepared from these tapes. The transcripts were then systematically analyzed for key themes. Key Research Questions PERT researchers developed a discussion guide fo
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Implementation Case Studies

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Implementation Case Studies

Using case study methods, PERT investigators characterized the structure and process employed by OPM and each of the eight selected plans to implement the FEHB Program parity requirement. The case studies focused on effective as well as nominal benefits, and described:
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Structural Changes to Plan Benefits

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Structural Changes to Plan Benefits

PERT researchers acquired nominal plan benefits information on the 304 FEHB plans with available benefit design information and participating in the FEHB in 1999, the baseline year of the evaluation. This information was obtained from the OPM website for all four years of the evaluation (1999-2002). To compile information on benefits in each of
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Federal Employees Health Benefits Parity

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Federal Employees Health Benefits Parity Reporting Requirement for All Plans

As part of the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM’s) contract with the FEHB plans, each health plan was required to submit to the OPM a report on implementing mental health and substance abuse (MH/SA) parity in the first quarter of 2002 and in the first quarter of 2003. 12 The report, The Parity Reporting Requirement (PRR), designed by P
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Overview

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Overview

This chapter examines the implementation of the parity policy in the FEHB Program in terms of its effect on nominal and effective plan benefits, as illustrated in the evaluation logic model shown in FigureII-1. The research questions, data sources and collection methods, and analysis methods--summarized in the “Benefits” panel of Table II-1--a
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III. Implementation of Parity

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. III. Implementation of Parity

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Data Collection Issues

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Data Collection Issues

Plan Selection The study design included selecting a small number of plans for in-depth study, i.e., obtaining archival claims data, conducting plan site visits, and conducting focus groups with providers (from a subset of the selected plans). Plans were selected on the basis of various characteristics on which they were likely to differ:
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Overview of the Evaluation Methodology

Evaluation of Parity in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program: Final Report. Overview of the Evaluation Methodology

The design of the evaluation was quasi-experimental. Plan data on nominal benefits (for all FEHB plans) and archival (claims) data on access, utilization, and cost (for nine selected plans) were studied before and after the implementation of parity.Changes in these measures were compared to changes in matched non-FEHB comparison group plans from t

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