Association of Arizona's Implementation of a Behavioral Health Crisis Response System With Suicide Hospitalizations.

OBJECTIVE: In July 2022, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline went live. The Lifeline is part of larger federal and state efforts to build comprehensive behavioral health crisis response systems that include mobile crisis units and crisis diversion and stabilization centers. Comprehensive response systems are anticipated to reduce hospitalizations for suicide and other behavioral health crises; however, research testing this assumption has been limited. The authors used Arizona-a state known for its comprehensive crisis system-to determine the association between state implementation of a comprehensive behavioral health crisis response system and suicide-related hospitalizations. METHODS: A comparative interrupted time-series (CITS) design was used to compare changes in suicide-related hospitalizations after the 2015 implementation of Arizona's crisis response system (N=215,063). Data were from the 2010-2019 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Databases (SID). Nevada (N=84,091 hospitalizations) was used as a comparison state because it is a western state that had not yet implemented a comprehensive crisis system and had available HCUP SID data. The CITS model included controls for time-varying differences in state demographic composition. RESULTS: From 2010 to 2014 to 2019, annual suicide-related hospitalizations in Arizona increased from 122.0 to 324.2 to 584.5, respectively, per 100,000 people, and in Nevada, hospitalizations increased from 94.7 to 263.2 to 595.5, respectively, per 100,000 people. Arizona's crisis response system was associated with a significant relative decrease in the quarterly trend of 2.57 suicide-related hospitalizations per 100,000 people (p=0.033). CONCLUSIONS: More research is needed to understand how the implementation of a comprehensive crisis response system may affect suicide-related hospitalizations.

Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the Use of Outpatient Behavioral Health Services in the United States, 2005-2016.

Objectives. To assess the impact of the 2008 Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) on mental and substance use disorder services in the private, large group employer-sponsored insurance market in the United States. Methods. We analyzed data from the IBM MarketScan Commercial Database from January 2005 through September 2015 by using population-level interrupted time series regressions to determine whether parity implementation was associated with utilization and spending outcomes. Results. MHPAEA had significant positive associations with utilization of mental and substance use disorder outpatient services. A spending decomposition analysis indicated that increases in utilization were the primary drivers of increases in spending associated with MHPAEA. Analyses of opioid use disorder and nonopioid substance use disorder services found that associations with utilization and spending were not attributable only to increases in treatment of opioid use disorder. Conclusions. MHPAEA is positively associated with utilization of outpatient mental and substance use disorder services for Americans covered by large group employer-sponsored insurance. Public Health Implications. These trends continued over the 5-year post-MHPAEA period, underscoring the long-term relationship between this policy change and utilization of behavioral health services.

Working with a Severe Mental Illness: Estimating the Causal Effects of Employment on Mental Health Status and Total Mental Health Costs.

Employment is an important goal for persons who have a severe mental illness (SMI). The current literature finds some evidence for a positive relationship between employment and measures of mental health (MH) status, however study design issues have prevented a causal interpretation. This study aims to measure the causal effect of employment on MH status and total MH costs for persons with SMI. In a quasi-experimental prospective design, self-reported data measured at baseline, 6-months, and 12-months, on MH status and employment are paired with Public Mental Health System (PMHS) claims data. The study population (N = 5162) is composed of persons with a SMI who received PMHS services for a year or more. Outcome variables are MH status symptom scores from the BASIS-24 instrument and total MH costs. The estimation method is full information maximum likelihood, which allows for tests of employment endogeneity. Outcomes with an insignificant test of endogeneity are estimated using tobit or ordinary least square (OLS). Employment has modest but meaningful effects on MH status (including overall MH status, functioning, and relationships) and reduces total mental health costs on average by $538 in a 6-month period. Tests of endogeneity were largely insignificant, except for the depression score that tested marginally statistically significant. Interaction terms between baseline MH scores and employment indicated larger employment effects for individuals with worse baseline scores. This study demonstrates the non-vocational benefits of employment for individuals with SMI. Results have high generalizability and should be of interest to federal and state governments in setting appropriate disability policy and funding vocational programs. From a methodological perspective, future research should still be concerned with potential endogeneity problems, especially if employment status and MH outcomes are simultaneously measured and/or baseline measures of MH are not adequately controlled for future research should continue to examine the multi-dimensional nature of MH status and costs. Our analyses also demonstrate the practical use of a state-wide outcomes measurement program in assessing the factors that influence the recovery trajectories of individuals with SMI.