Treatment of Major Depression Before and After Implementation of a Behavioral Health Carve-Out Plan

Abstract

Implementation of a behavioral health carve-out plan may be accompanied by substantial reductions in inpatient utilization and payments for treatment of major depressive disorder. Descriptive findings suggest that such reductions may not have a detrimental impact on readmission and follow-up treatment rates within 30 days. However, this analysis did not control for patient characteristics, used short follow-up periods, and did not include some relevant outcome measures.