Effects of the Vermont Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity Law

Table D.7: Variation in Health Care Costs and Cost-Monitoring Activities, by Firm Size, %

  All Firms Number of Employees
Few Than 10 10 to 25 26 to 50 More Than 50
Frequency of Monitoring (chi-sq = 34.83****)          
   Four or more times yearly 16.9 14.1 14.4 12.8 33.7
   One or two times yearly 57.8 58.4 60.7 60.0 47.4
   Monitors at contract renewal or other time 13.0 13.0 12.5 16.7 10.6
   Never 8.2 11.9 6.6 6.5 3.9
   Unknown 4.2 2.7 5.9 4.1 4.5
Percentage Using Outside Sources for Monitoring 53.4 38.6*** 56.7*** 58.0*** 76.8
Sources of Help in Monitoring          
   Insurance broker 57.2 53.4 61.6 52.4* 51.0
   Benefits consultant 23.8 16.0*** 19.4*** 28.8 36.7
   Health plans 22.7 11.8** 25.5 24.7 30.2
   Trade or professional association 13.2 24.0** 10.8 9.4 6.7
   Business consultant 7.9 7.9 13.0 2.8 3.2
   Other 2.1 2.8 0.4 4.2 2.8
Percentage of Health Care Costs Attributable to MH/SA Services (chi-sq = 119.97****)          
   None 23.1 30.3 26.0 18.0 3.1
   1-5 6.0 5.1 5.7 5.1 10.2
   6-10 1.9 0.9 0.9 2.9 5.8
   More Than 10 1.6 0.8 1.2 0.0 6.4
   Unknown 67.3 63.0 66.3 74.0 74.5
Changes in MH/SA Costs Over the Past 3 Years (chi-sq = 8.51)          
   Increased 18.1 14.5 18.5 19.1 25.4
   Decreased 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9
   Stayed the same 40.9 41.3 44.0 35.9 38.0
   Unknown 40.1 43.4 36.6 44.1 35.6
Sources: Mathematica Policy research Survey of Vermont Employers to Assess the Impact of the Vermont Parity Act.
   
Note: The survey includes Vermont businesses that were in operation as of January 1, 1998 and that remained in operation as of the time of the survey (Fall 200). The survey excluded those that had, on average, few than five employees across establishments in calendar year 1999 and business operated by Federal and State government entities. This table is limited to insured businesses only.
   
* Significantly different from employers with more than 50 employees at the .10 level, two-tailed test
** Significantly different from employers with more than 50 employees at the .05 level, two-tailed test
*** Significantly different from employers with more than 50 employees at the .01 level, two-tailed test
**** Distribution by firm size significantly different than what would be expected by chance alone, based on a chi-square test (p-.01).

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