Issue link: https://blog.providence.org/i/1035653
Evaluating State Mental Health and Addiction Parity Statutes: A Technical Report 9 In Phase II, a list of relevant state statutes was developed using numerous resources: ParityTrack. org (publicly available), 9 the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Mental Health Benefits analysis (publicly available, last updated December 30, 2015) 10 and a 50-state survey conducted by Thomson Reuters (October 2017, available by subscription only) 11 . More than 150 state statutes were identified through these sources. To confirm the initial list of statues and ensure updated analysis, the legal database WestlawNext was used to collect the existing statutes, with the last search conducted on August 20, 2018. Where external review of the research findings identified additional source documents, coding was revised to incorporate those sources. The coding of state statutes was conducted by two attorneys and supervised by an attorney with experience conducting legal epidemiology studies. 12 To establish consistent interpretation of state statues when applying the SCI, seven states were independently coded by two attorneys. The supervisor and coders held consensus meetings to identify coding discrepancies within the sample of duplicate states, to clarify coding interpretations and to reach consensus for all seven duplicate states. Subsequently, each coder independently assessed 29 states by reviewing the relevant statutes, applying the SCI, and entering the scores in a spreadsheet to generate a total score for each state. The supervising attorney reviewed the scores and source documents for all 50 states upon coding completion. The statutory source document and specific provision used to justify the points assigned for each coding question was documented and is available upon request to the corresponding author. After the secondary review, states were assigned a grade on a scale of A through F based on their numeric score. Scores were converted into grades via the following rubric: A = 90-100 B = 80-89 C = 70-79 D = 60-69 F = 0-59 ________________ 9 The Kennedy Forum. (2016). Parity Implementation National Survey. Retrieved from https://www.paritytrack.org/parity-reports/ state-reports/. 10 National Conference of State Legislatures (2015, Dec. 30). Mental Health Benefits: State Laws Mandating or Regulating. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/mental-health-benefits-state-mandates.aspx. 11 Thomson Reuters. (2017, Oct.). Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity and Coverage Requirements (Statutes). Available by subscription only. 12 Douglas M.D., Benevides T.W., & Carretta H. (2017). Analyzing State Autism Private Insurance Mandates for Allied Health Services: A Pilot Study. OTJR (Thorofare N J), 37(4),218-226. doi: 10.1177/1539449217730355.