How much could consumers and insurance companies save if mental health care is incorporated into primary care?

Results from the last 35 years of medical cost offset research reveal that cost offset is greater in organized health care settings where behavioral health care and primary care are integrated and where the behavioral health-care interventions are supported by research. Studies cited by Whitehouse (1997) indicate, for example, that well-designed behavioral interventions can save anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent of previous total medical expenditures. In another controlled study, Medicaid outpatients who frequently visited their physicians and received integrated behavioral health treatment achieved a 21 percent reduction in medical costs after 18 months, while those who received no behavioral services had a 22 percent increase in their use of medical services (Pallack, Cummings, Dorken & Hanke, 1995).  more