Do High Fidelity Wraparound Services for Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbances Save Money in the Long-Term?

DISCUSSION: Youth participating in Wrap had much higher average monthly costs than youth in the control group for the year prior to entering Wrap, suggesting that the intervention targeted youth with the highest mental health utilization and likely more complex needs. While both groups experienced reductions in spending, the treatment group experienced larger absolute reductions, but smaller relative reductions associated with participation. These differences were driven mainly by reductions in mental health inpatient spending. Larger reductions in general outpatient spending for the treatment group suggest spillover benefits in terms of physical health care spending. Further analysis is needed to assess how these spending changes impacted health outcomes.
IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICIES: Wrap or similar programs may lead to reductions in health care spending. This is the first study to find evidence of longer-term spending reductions for up to a year after Wrap participation.
IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Randomized trials or some other source of plausibly exogenous variation in Wrap participation is needed to further assess the causal impact of Wrap on health care spending, outcomes, or broader system-of-care spending.
PMID: 29300703 [PubMed - in process]

Source: Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics - January 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Tags: J Ment Health Policy Econ Source Type: research