Families of children with mental health conditions had lower spending when enrolled in insurance plans under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, but these cost savings did not represent a “substantial improvement” for families at the higher end of mental health spending, according to results of a study published in Pediatrics.

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Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and her colleagues evaluated inpatient, outpatient, and pharmaceutical claims data from three national insurers available through the Health Care Cost Institute for children in 23 states born between 1990 and 2005 (who were between 3 and 18 years old in 2008); these patients had continuous medical, mental health, and pharmacy coverage before (2008-2009) and after (2011-2012) the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) went into effect. Using a difference-in-differences model, Dr. Kennedy-Hendricks and her colleagues compared these children to a similar group who had not been exposed to the parity law, and measured out-of-pocket (OOP), annual, and OOP share of total mental health spending as well as annual spending on psychotropic medications and the number of inpatient and outpatient mental health days.

They found children in plans subject to MHPAEA spent an average of $140 less on mental health care (95% confidence interval, −$196 to −$84), compared with expected “changes in the comparison group.” In families with a high level of spending for mental health, those who were insured with plans subject to parity had an average annual OOP mental health spending of $234 less (95% confidence interval, −$391 to −$76) than the comparison group.

In the first year after MHPAEA, all children subject to parity had $112 average lower spending (95% CI, −$167 to −$57), with $171 average lower spending (95% CI, −$241 to −$101) in the second year than the comparison group. Among high spenders, OOP spending was $210 lower (95% CI, −$414 to −$5) in the first year and $258 lower (95% CI, −$401 to −$114) in the second year than the comparison group.

Among patients with high mental health spending, there was a 0.5 increase in number of inpatient mental health days per year (95% CI, 0.1-0.9), according to the researchers. In addition, total mental health spending increased overall for high-spending families: Those who were self-insured paid an average of $5,302 preparity, compared with $8,708 postparity, whereas a comparison group of fully insured patients paid an average of $5,460 preparity, compared with $9,177 postparity.

“Our finding of a reduction in OOP mental health spending attributable to parity among all children with mental health conditions is consistent with the limited body of literature focused on children,” Dr. Kennedy-Hendricks and her colleagues wrote. “Although the estimated reduction in OOP spending was larger for children with high spending than among children with mental health conditions more broadly, given the much higher average annual OOP spending preparity among the high-spending group, this constitutes a relatively small reduction in OOP spending attributable to the law.”

The researchers noted as potential limitations that there may be differences in the children in the exposed and comparison group; selection of the high-spending group was based on both preparity and postparity; and there may be potential differences in other states not studied.

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors reported no relevant financial disclosures.

SOURCE: Kennedy-Hendricks A et al. Pediatrics. 2018 Jul 23. doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-2618.

MHPAEA lowers out-of-pocket spending for families of children with mental illnesses