His conclusions were based on data from managed care plans that currently offer unlimited substance abuse benefits with minimal copayments to their enrollees. The data set had 258,669 observations for a two-year period. It appears in the May issue of The Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research.
Cost is a primary concern for excluding substance abuse from parity legislation.
According to some health care insurance industry estimates, insurance payments would go up by as much as nine percent if unlimited substance abuse benefits were to be included. These concerns were based on actuarial simulations using treatment patterns from 10 or 20 years ago, not actual claims and services from a managed care company. In contrast, our study compared data from 25 managed care plans with unlimited substance abuse benefits for 1996 and 1997. Previous estimates on adding substance abuse services to managed care programs also did not take into account the dramatic changes that have taken place in managed care plans. The last few years have seen tremendous changes in managed care programs, especially the carve-out programs being offered to consumers.