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Member Research & Reports

Member Research & Reports

Yale Researchers Find Parity Law to Have Negligible Effect on Spending for Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Despite predictions that requiring health insurers to provide equal coverage for substance use disorder services would have negative financial consequences, the economic impact so far has been minimal. A team of researchers led by Dr. Susan H. Busch at the Yale School of Public Health studied the first year of the federal parity law’s implementation and found that it did not result in an increase in the proportion of enrollees seeking treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). Their analysis also identified only a modest increase in spending for substance use disorder treatment – $10 annually per health plan enrollee. The study is published in The American Journal of Managed Care.