Study Findings on Mental Health Diseases and Conditions Are Outlined in Reports from Johns Hopkins University (Effects of High-deductible Health Plans On Enrollees With Mental Health Conditions With and Without Substance Use Disorders): Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2022 JUN 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Mental Health Diseases and Conditions have been published. According to news reporting originating in Baltimore, Maryland, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “High-deductible health plans (HDHPs) are increasingly common in the U.S. health insurance market and are intended to reduce the use of low-value services, but evidence suggests that HDHP enrollees also reduce the use of high-value services. This study examined the effects of HDHPs on enrollees with mental health conditions, a population with high levels of unmet treatment need, often because of financial barriers.”

Financial support for this research came from NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Johns Hopkins University, “Enrollees with a co-occurring substance use disorder have greater treatment needs and unique barriers to care, perhaps changing their response to an HDHP. Commercial health insurance claims data in a difference-in-differences design was used to evaluate the effect of an employer’s offer of an HDHP on 6,627,128 enrollee-years among enrollees with mental health conditions, stratified by having a co-occurring substance use disorder or not. Among enrollees without a co-occurring substance use disorder, an HDHP offer was associated with a 4.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]=2.4%-7.2%) reduction in overall spending on mental health care, despite an 11.3% (95% CI=1.0%-21.6%) increase in spending on mental health-related emergency department visits. Among enrollees with a co-occurring substance use disorder, no significant changes attributable to an HDHP offer were found in most categories of spending on combined mental health and substance use disorder care, apart from a 4.5% (95% CI=1.9%-7.2%) reduction in spending on psychotropic medications.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “HDHPs may reduce use of necessary care among enrollees with mental health conditions, which could exacerbate undertreatment in this population and result in adverse health outcomes.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Effects of High-deductible Health Plans On Enrollees With Mental Health Conditions With and Without Substance Use Disorders. Psychiatric Services, 2022;73(5):518-525. Psychiatric Services can be contacted at: Amer Psychiatric Publishing, Inc, 800 Maine Ave SW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20024, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Cameron J. Schilling, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Sch Publ Hlth, Dept. of Health Policy and Management, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States. Additional authors for this research include Matthew D. Eisenberg, Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, Elizabeth A. Stuart, Mark K. Meiselbach, Colleen L. Barry, Alisa B. Busch and Haiden A. Huskamp.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.202000914. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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