CHIA Releases First Report On Massachusetts Primary Care And Behavioral Health Expenditures

DATE: September 20, 2022

The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) today published its first report on primary care and behavioral health expenditures in Massachusetts. This report covers data for calendars years 2019 and 2020, including data from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investments in primary care and behavioral health are known to meaningfully shape patient outcomes and are often associated with lower health care costs and higher quality care. To better understand the Commonwealth’s investments in these areas, CHIA is launching a new report series that examines spending on primary care and behavioral health services in Massachusetts. Comprehensive data on expenditures for these services in the Commonwealth has been limited to date. To address this gap, CHIA began collecting data on payments made by commercial health plans to health care providers delivering these services in the Commonwealth.

This series is part of an effort by CHIA to offer policymakers and stakeholders valuable baseline data that can be used to track the Commonwealth’s investments in primary care and behavioral health for Massachusetts residents.

Key Findings

• In 2020, spending on primary care and behavioral health services represented 14.3% of total spending for commercial members, 27.4% for Medicaid MCO/ACO-A members, and 6.5% for members enrolled Medicare Advantage plans.

• Across all major insurance categories, spending on behavioral health services increased from 2019 to 2020, while primary care spending was flat or declined.

• Changes in delivery systems—particularly the increased use of telehealth—impacted trends in behavioral health spending, while trends in primary care spending were impacted by decreased utilization in 2020.

Accompanying this report is an interactive expenditures graphic and a detailed databook. For more information on this report, please visit https://www.chiamass.gov/pcbh.