Racial/ethnic disparities in specialty behavioral health care treatment patterns and expenditures among commercially insured patients in managed behavioral health care plans.

objectiveTo document differences among racial/ethnic/gender groups in specialty behavioral health care (BH) utilization/expenditures; examine whether these differences are driven by probability vs intensity of treatment; and identify whether differences are explained by socioeconomic status (SES). DATA SOURCE: The cohort consists of adults continuously enrolled in Optum plans with BH benefits during 2013. STUDY

designWe modeled each outcome using linear regressions among the entire sample stratified by race/ethnicity, language and gender. Then, we estimated logistic regressions of the probability that an enrollee had any spending/use in a given service category (service penetration) and linear regressions of spending/use among the user subpopulation (treatment intensity). Lastly, all analyses were rerun with SES controls. DATA COLLECTION: This study links administrative data from a managed BH organization to a commercial marketing database. PRINCIPAL

findingsWe found that in many cases, racial/ethnic minorities had lower specialty BH expenditures/utilization, relative to whites, primarily driven by differences in service penetration. Among women, relative to whites, Asian non-English speakers, Asian English speakers, Hispanic non-English speakers, Hispanic English speakers, and blacks had $106, $95, $90, $48, and $61 less in total expenditures. SES explained racial/ethnic differences in treatment intensity but not service penetration.

conclusionsIn this population, SES was not a major driver of racial/ethnic differences in specialty BH utilization. Future studies should explore the role of other factors not studied here, such as stigma, cultural competence, and geography.