Medical Cost Offset
Do the Numbers Add Up?
ResearchPosted on rand.org 2001Published in: Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow, v. 10, no. 1, Feb. 2001, p.15, 35-37
Two field experts discuss whether evidence of a medical cost offset exists. It's a simple question that has generated a complex debate in the behavioral health field: Does behavioral health treatment generate savings in other healthcare expenditures? Those who say yes point to the high costs of emergency care and other treatment associated with undetected depression or substance use. Those who say no insist that behavioral health leaders have overestimated treatment's medical cost offset in a far-reaching attempt to win more funding. And still others wonder about the question's appropriateness: Would a cancer surgeon be asked to justify his services by discussing how they save money in other healthcare areas?
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Document Details
- Copyright: Medquest Communications, LLC
- Availability: Non-RAND
- Year: 2001
- Pages: 4
- Document Number: EP-200102-10
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