The American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE) has launched a two-phase study to examine the effects of upcoming mental health parity implementation on psychiatric practice and the quality of care. The APIRE Parity Study was sent to approximately 2,000 psychiatrists in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area earlier this month.

In June 1999 President Bill Clinton issued an executive order mandating mental health parity for the 9 million federal workers and their families insured through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). The order states that all companies that sell health insurance to federal workers and their families must issue policies that have the same copayments, deductibles, day and office-visit limits, and payment caps for mental health care as for other types of health care.

According to the executive director of APIRE, Darrel A. Regier, M.D., M.P.H., the study will look at the clinical aspects of parity from the physician’s standpoint and gather information on the movement of psychiatrists and patients into and out of the networks through which the parity benefits operate.

"We will be focusing on the treatment that psychiatrists are able to provide to their patients and how such treatment has been affected by their experience with insurance companies," Regier said.

According to the APIRE director, involvement by the Washington Psychiatric Society (WPS) was essential to the development of the study. "WPS leaders and members have been extremely helpful in pilot testing early drafts of the survey questionnaire and in supporting the research effort."

The study will be implemented in two phases. The first phase of the APIRE Parity Study will survey Washington-area psychiatrists before the parity legislation takes effect in January 2001, and the second phase will survey the same psychiatrists to collect data after the parity benefits become operative.

Participating psychiatrists will be asked to answer a series of questions on two patients who are enrolled under a FEHBP health plan and one patient who is not. The information will be submitted and collected in a confidential manner, emphasized Regier.

Although the federal government will be conducting a study of FEHBP claims data and a beneficiary satisfaction survey, the APIRE Parity Study is the only study that will examine the experiences of psychiatrists who will be directly affected by the implementation of the parity benefits, said Regier.

Results from the parity study will have important and long-term implications in Regier’s view. "As the FEHBP model of insurance is implemented across the nation," Regier told Psychiatric News, "it will serve as a model for many other insurance plans. It is extremely important to assess both the strengths and weaknesses of the FEHBP program as both these strengths and weaknesses will be replicated in other insurance plans."

The study is being funded by a grant from the American Psychiatric Foundation.