Modern Healthcare (8/13, Livingston, Subscription Publication) reports, “Employers and other commercial payers spend little on behavioral health treatment, even though people with behavioral health conditions tend to have higher healthcare costs than those who don’t,” investigators “from the consulting firm Milliman” concluded after analyzing “commercial insurance claims for 21 million people.” The study revealed that “behavioral health treatment was meager, accounting for a fraction – 4.4% – of total healthcare costs across the 21 million people.” Click here to see the findings. Commenting on the study, Jeffrey Geller, MD, “president of the American Psychiatric Association, which is part of a private-sector initiative called The Path Forward for Mental Health and Substance Use, which commissioned the study,” stated, “It’s almost unimaginable how small a percentage of money went toward psychiatric care and treatment.”
Related Links:
— “Behavioral health patients spur 57% of commercial healthcare spending, “Shelby Livingston, Modern Healthcare, August 13, 2020