A Preliminary Examination into Consumption and Outcomes

The delivery of mental health services might offer the most paradigmatic window into the fragmentation of health services in the United States. Not only is delivery fragmented across outpatient clinicians, inpatient services, prescription drugs, and other behavioral interventions, but the rise of mental health carveouts has meant that insurance benefits have been fragmented across mental and physical health services as well. If the financing of health care helps direct outcomes, 1 then carved-out mental health benefits might contribute to the many harms of fragmentation, including poorly coordinated care, overprovision and duplication of certain services, and ineffective restraints on cost. 2