Description: More than one million Americans have died in the past decade from drug overdoses, alcohol and suicide. Drug-related deaths have tripled since 2000, alcohol-induced deaths have reached a 35-year high, and suicides increased by 28 percent from 2000 to 2015. With one-fifth of Americans affected by mental illness each year, these epidemics constitute a public health crisis that is projected to worsen without proper interventions. As insurers, employers and state agencies start to seriously address these issues, actuaries well-versed in mental healthcare issues, interventions, and quality assessment will be invaluable partners in efforts to improve behavioral healthcare treatment throughout the country. The presenters have completed significant research concerning the opioid epidemic, suicide rates and the quality of behavioral healthcare treatment in the U.S. and will share patterns and statistics regarding the state of behavioral healthcare in the country, discuss the financial and population health benefits that can be achieved through effective medical-behavioral healthcare integration, and the role that actuaries can play in supporting these efforts. Attendees will walk away understanding the extent of the drug, alcohol, and suicide epidemics in the U.S and the need for a National Resilience Strategy to address them.

Description: This article reviews the cost of behavioral health care and looks at how the involvement of Primary Care Physicians leads to a less efficient and effective treatment and is an increasing cost many plans have yet to address. From Health Section Newsletter, March 2005, Issue No. 49.

Description: Part 1 of a 2-part series exploring implementation issues for the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 MHPAEA. Part 2 addresses the new enforcement safe harbor, how the regulations could impact the business of behavioral health care and the impending decisions for payors, employers, providers, and insureds.

Description: Employer and payers need to actively seek change in the system of mental health care deliveryoperational, clinical, and financial change. From Financing Chronic Care Monograph, M-HB05-1.

Description: This is the abstract for the paper, The Need for Coordinated Care for Depression, and the Need for Creative Innovation by Stephen P. Melek, FSA.

Description: Full version of Health Section News, Issue No. 55, May 2007.

Description: This article examines the costs of mental health parity, presents the primary drivers of cost increases from legislation and shows evidence the initial cost projections were too high. From Health Section News, March 2005, Issue No. 49.

Description: Full version of Health Section News, Issue No. 49, March 2005.

Description: Part one of a two part series explores implementation issues for the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 MHPAEA.