Institute for Behavioral Health, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass. 02454, USA. merrick@brandeis.edu
Although the disease management industry has expanded rapidly, there is little nationally representative data regarding medical and behavioral health disease management programs at the health plan level. National estimates from a survey of private health plans indicate that 90% of health plan products offered disease management for general medical conditions such as diabetes but only 37% had depression programs. The frequency of specific depression disease management activities varied widely. Program adoption was significantly related to product type and behavioral health contracting. In health plans, disease management has penetrated more slowly into behavioral health and depression program characteristics are highly variable.