Mental health treatment received by youths in the year before and after a new diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Objective: Despite a marked increase in treatment for bipolar disorder among youths, little is known about their pattern of service use. This article describes mental health service use in the year before and after a new clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Methods: Claims were reviewed between April 1, 2004, and March 31, 2005, for 1,274,726 privately insured youths (17 years and younger) who were eligible for services at least one year before and after a service claim; 2,907 youths had new diagnosis of bipolar disorder during this period.

Effects of regulation and competition on health care disparities: the case of cardiac angiography in New Jersey.

This article evaluates a Certificate of Need (CON) reform in New Jersey that was designed to expand hospital capacity to provide cardiac angiography (CA) and reduce long-standing disparities in access to the procedure. Using data from 1995 to 2004, we find that expanded capacity increased CA utilization overall and did so more rapidly for blacks, leading to a large reduction in the disparity. However, this reduction was not attributable to services provided by new entrants to the CA market, since they were located in mostly white suburban areas.