April 22, 2002

The Promise and Reality of Managed Behavioral Health Care Part II

2. Substitution of Types of Mental Health Services

The IOM (1996) concluded that "in the late 1980s, the majority (70 percent) of mental health funds spent by Medicaid and private insurance went for inpatient care, leading many researchers, clinicians, and advocates to question the imbalance and to search for policy changes. Only the introduction of managed care arrangements has led to a significant shift away from costly and often unnecessary inpatient stays to a more appropriate range . . .