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Author: Heboyan, Vahe
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Heboyan, Vahe
Douglas, Megan D.
McGregor, Brian
Benevides, Teal W.
Impact of Mental Health Insurance Legislation on Mental Health Treatment in a Longitudinal Sample of Adolescents
Medical Care 59,10 (October 2021): 939-946.
Also: https://journals.lww.com/lww-medicalcare/Fulltext/2021/10000/Impact_of_Mental_Health_Insurance_Legislation_on.12.aspx
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Keyword(s): Health Care; Health, Mental/Psychological; State-Level Data/Policy

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Background: Mental health insurance laws are intended to improve access to needed treatments and prevent discrimination in coverage for mental health conditions and other medical conditions.

Objectives: The aim was to estimate the impact of these policies on mental health treatment utilization in a nationally representative longitudinal sample of youth followed through adulthood.

Methods: We used data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Mental Health Insurance Laws data set. We specified a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model to estimate the relationship between mental health treatment utilization and law exposure while controlling for other explanatory variables.

Results: We found that the number of mental health treatment visits declined as cumulative exposure to mental health insurance legislation increased; a 10 unit (or 10.3%) increase in the law exposure strength resulted in a 4% decline in the number of mental health visits. We also found that state mental health insurance laws are associated with reducing mental health treatments and disparities within at-risk subgroups.

Bibliography Citation
Heboyan, Vahe, Megan D. Douglas, Brian McGregor and Teal W. Benevides. "Impact of Mental Health Insurance Legislation on Mental Health Treatment in a Longitudinal Sample of Adolescents." Medical Care 59,10 (October 2021): 939-946.