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Does managed mental health care reallocate resources to those with greater need for services?

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Abstract

Evidence points to the existence of two coexisting inefficiencies in mental health care resource allocation: those with need receive too limited or no care while those with no apparent need receive services. In addition to reducing costs, managed mental health care is expected to reallocate treatment resources to those with greater need for services. However, there are no empirical findings regarding this issue. This study tests whether managed mental health care has had a differential impact by level of need. Data consist of three waves of a community sample with a control group. The study finds that managed care has not succeeded in reallocating resources from the unlikely to the definite “needers.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Public Health, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, PO Box 365067, 00936-5067, San Juan, PR

    Margarita Alegría PhD (Professor), Mildred Vera PhD (Professor), Carmen Albizu MD (Associate Professor), Heriberto Marín PhD (Assistant Professor) & Leida Matías PhD (Project Director)

  2. Department of Economics, Boston University, USA

    Thomas McGuire PhD (Professor)

  3. Behavioral Science Research Institute, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, USA

    Glorisa Canino PhD (Professor)

Authors
  1. Margarita Alegría PhD
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  2. Thomas McGuire PhD
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  3. Mildred Vera PhD
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  4. Glorisa Canino PhD
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  5. Carmen Albizu MD
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  7. Leida Matías PhD
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Correspondence to Margarita Alegría PhD.

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Alegría, M., McGuire, T., Vera, M. et al. Does managed mental health care reallocate resources to those with greater need for services?. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research 28, 439–455 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02287774

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