This article counters concerns that benefit expansion under parity would increase spending. The study finds that mental health parity provisions in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program reduced total out-of-pocket spending for patients with more-severe behavioral health conditions, while...

Studies of large policy interventions typically do not involve randomization. Adjustments, such as matching, can remove the bias due to observed covariates, but residual confounding remains a concern. In this paper we introduce two analytical strategies to bolster inferences of the effectiveness...

This article counters concerns that benefit expansion under parity would increase spending. The study finds that mental health parity provisions in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program reduced total out-of-pocket spending for patients with more-severe behavioral health conditions, while...