This report examines the effects of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (MHPA). 

From the SAMHSA report:

Results indicate that the effects of MHPA have been largely positive. Only about half of the health plans subject to the Act had to make changes in their mental health benefits. Of these, the large majority did not judge that the mandate required compensating changes in other benefit provisions. Further, MHPA had an unintended beneficial effect of also improving coverage for substance abuse benefits in many plans. Nevertheless, some employers did make changes that would tend to nullify any beneficial effects of the legislation, and a very small number actually dropped mental health coverage.

The report is available from SAMHSA here: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/ManagedCare/Parity/ParityActEffcts.asp 

This 1998 report examined the state of mental health and substance abuse parity under the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and state parity laws.  The study summarized characteristics of state parity laws, conducted detailed case studies of five state parity laws, analyzed actuarial estimates of the costs of parity, and provided estimates of premium increases under full and partial parity. 

The full report is available from SAMHSA here: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/Mc99-80/Prtyfnix.asp 

This link provides the transcript of web chat held by former SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie on mental health parity and the President's New Freedom Commission.  The chat was held for National Mental Health Month on May 23, 2002. 

 The full transcript is available from SAMHSA here: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/newsroom/paritychat.asp 

This study examines the state of behavioral health benefits in employer-sponsored health plans in 1997.  The study finds that at least 75 percent of such plans placed greater restrictions on M/SU benefits than on general medical coverage. 

The study is available through the Health Affairs website: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/18/2/67.pdf 

Citation: Buck, J. A., Teich, J. L., Umland, B., & Stein, M. (1999) Behavioral health benefits in employer-sponsored health plans, 1997. Health Affairs, 18(2), 67-78.

This report, published in 2004, provides estimates of the number of individuals in the United States in 1999 who had mental health benefits as a part of their health insurance coverage, the subset of those individuals who had mental health benefits that met or exceeded a benchmark level of generosity, the number of individuals with parity in their mental health benefits, and the number of individuals potentially subject to state and Federal mental health parity laws. 

The report is available from SAMHSA here: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/SMA04-3872/part1.asp#executivesummary

Provided by SAMHSA's CMHS, this page provides a bibliography of selected studies on behavioral health insurance parity. 

The complete bibliography is available from SAMHSA here: http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/ManagedCare/Parity/Bibliography.asp