Content by Keyword: Substance Abuse (Alcohol and Drug Abuse)

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.

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

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:

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

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

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

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:

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

The study’s key research questions are described in Table II-1 and reflect the logic model in Figure II-1. Table II-1 identifies the data sources and collection methods most relevant to each research question. chapter III, Implementation of Parity , and chapter IV, Impact of Parity , provide further details on more specific research questions,

The logic model for understanding the relationship between implementing benefit changes and new methods for managing care and their impact on access, utilization, cost, and quality appears in Figure II-1. The logic model provides a framework for the evaluation. It depicts a sequence of moves from implementing the policy of the President to have al

The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program evaluation addressed changes in cost, access, utilization, and quality as a result of the parity policy. Additionally, the evaluation focused on adverse selection arising from the managed competition that exists in the FEHB Program. Adverse selection refers to the tendency for individuals to c

A series of efforts at parity legislation has also occurred at the State level (Hennessy and Stephens, 1997). Some States target their parity legislation narrowly to include only people with severe mental disorders, while others cover a broader range of mental illnesses that may also include substance abuse disorders. Experiences with parity polic

Federal Legislative Trends Affecting Parity in Mental Health Insurance Coverage Although Federal legislative initiatives on parity in mental health insurance coverage dates from the 1960s, the 1996 Mental Health Parity Act represents the first Federal parity legislation. Implemented in 1998, this legislation focused on only one aspect of the dif

In a speech in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on April 29, 2002, announcing the creation of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, President George W. Bush reiterated the importance of mental health parity. President Bush said, “Americans with mental illness…deserve a health care system that treats their illness with the same urg

As of January 1, 2001, all of the FEHB plans had complied with the parity policy, two-thirds incurred no added administrative costs, and none reported major problems with implementation. Furthermore, no plans left the FEHB Program to avoid the parity policy. The policy change enhanced MH/SA benefits for FEHB Program enrollees. At the time of polic

How was the FEHB Parity Policy Implemented? All of the FEHB plans complied with the parity policy, most incurred no added administrative costs, and none reported major problems with implementation. The policy change enhanced MH/SA benefits for FEHB Program enrollees. Table 1 shows the key research questions regarding how the parity policy was im

The design of the evaluation was quasi-experimental. It analyzed plan benefits data for all FEHB plans and claims data on access, utilization, and cost for a subset of nine FEHB plans, both before (1999 and 2000) and after (2001 and 2002) the introduction of FEHB parity. Changes in access, utilization and cost were compared to changes in a matched