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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Elizabeth I. Merwin, PhD, RN, FAAN, Director, Rural Health Care Research Center, University of Virginia, P.O.Box 800782, 202 15th St. SW, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0782, 434-982-3286, eim5u@Virginia.EDU, Emily Hauenstein, PhD, RN, Director, Southeastern Rural Mental Health Research Center, University of Virginia, P.O.Box 800782, 202 15th St. SW, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0782, Steven Stern, PhD, Economics Department, University of Virginia, P.O.Box 800782, 202 15th St. SW, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0782, Melvin Wilson, PhD, Psychology Department, University of Virginia, P.O.Box 800782, 202 15th St. SW, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0782, and Ivora Hinton, PhD, Rural Health Care Research Center, University of Virginia, P.O.Box 800782, 202 15th St. SW, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0782.

The lack of specialty mental health providers in rural areas is well established but the association between provider shortages and health outcomes is less clear. Access barriers are evident in data emerging from an ongoing national study on the availability of mental health providers including their impact on health outcomes. The lack of different types of specialty providers, the lack of minority providers, the influence of reimbursement and language barriers of consumers are evident within different components of the study. These issues are discussed using data from the 2000-2001 Community Tracking Survey, Household Component representing 30,307 families (53,089 individuals) and econometric methods appropriate to the nesting of individual and community data. The study's purpose is to determine the effect of community characteristics, provider availability, and individual and family characteristics on health outcomes for specific minority and/or rural populations. The health policy implications of the finding that only 0.6% of reimbursed Medicare services in 2004 were for specialty mental health provider services will be discussed in relation to the need to improve mental health outcomes. Findings are placed in the context of recent increases in privacy restrictions on health outcome data and on data regarding provider availability and the effects of privacy restrictions in the conduct of disparities research, and the accuracy of findings. Collectively these different types of access barriers will be considered as factors than interfere with strides toward improving mental health care for rural and/or minority populations.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss disparities in availability of minority health professionals and the effects of shortages on health outcomes for minority populations
• Identify the effect of the availability of different types of providers on the receipt of mental health treatment and outcomes.
• Examine trends in reimbursement of specialty mental health providers within Medicare
• Identify impact of privacy protections on access to mental health provider and health outcome data with a specific emphasis on rural residents.

Keywords: Mental Health System, Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered