The impact of Timothy's Law on hospitalization among patients with mental health conditions in New York State.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Timothy's law to reduce mental health care disparities was enacted in January 2007 in New York state (NY). According to Timothy's law, "if a patient is suffering from a Biologically Based Mental Illness, or is a Child with Serious Emotional Disturbances, the Inpatient mental health benefit will be the same as for any other illness". An assessment of its impact on inpatient mental health care is lacking. We provide a rigorous study of this policy intervention's effect over the first year of its implementation.

Methods

We used a quasi-experimental design to combine the difference-in-difference method and propensity score weighting. Data are from inpatient records in NY and California (CA) (as a control) between January 2006 to December 2006 (the pre-enactment year i

SUBMITTER: Li M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9124051 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature