National trends in coverage and utilization of mental health, alcohol, and substance abuse services within managed health care systems.

This study reports the results of a 1986 national survey of mental health, alcohol, and substance abuse services within health maintenance organizations in the United States. Ninety-seven percent of responding health maintenance organizations (HMOs) offered mental health service coverage and two-thirds of responding HMOs offered alcohol and substance abuse service coverage. Annual mean mental health hospitalization was 36.90 days per 1,000 members and annual mean ambulatory mental health utilization was 0.29 physician encounters per member.