Effects of the Vermont Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity Law

Table III.8: Mental Health and Substance Abuse Spending as a Percentage of Total Spending: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, 1996-1999

	Before Parity	After Parity	Percent Change
Total mental health/substance abuse (MH/SA) spending per member per quarter^a
Mental health	$13.98	$14.25	1.9
Substance abuse	3.80	2.03	-46.6
MH/SA combined	17.78	16.28	-8.4
Health plan payments per member per quarter
Mental health	$9.74	$11.87	21.9
Substance abuse	3.30	1.75	-47.0
MH/SA combined	13.04	13.62	4.4
Health plan payments as a percentage of total MH/SA spending
Mental health	69.7%	83.3%	n.a.
Substance abuse	86.8%	86.2%	n.a.
MH/SA combined	13.3%	83.7%	n.a.
Health plan payments for MH/SA services as a percent of total health plan payments
Mental health	1.98%	2.24%	n.a.
Substance abuse	0.32%	0.23%	n.a.
MH/SA combined	2.30%	2.47%	n.a.

Source:	Original analysis of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont claims/encounter data by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
a	Total spending includes health plan payments and out-of-pocket spending by members (deductibles, coinsureance, and copayments
n.a. = not applicable.