February 14, 2024 -- Last week, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) in Washington State released a series of mental health dashboards that highlight trends in cost, utilization, and access for members of the commercial population with and without mental health diagnoses.

These dashboards help users explore how costs and utilization varied across a wide range of factors, including:

• Care setting. This includes inpatient, outpatient, emergency department, telehealth services, and more.
• Geography. Geographical filters include OIC Rating Regions, which are used to determine insurance premiums, and Rural and Urban Commuting Areas (RUCAs) developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• Diagnosis. Users can compare how costs and utilization differed for claims with or without a diagnosis related to mental health.
• Mental health condition. Dashboard filters also help users compare results for members who were diagnosed with certain mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders, depressive disorders, and more.
• Time. The dashboards include data for calendar years 2017 through 2022.

Figure 1, for example, illustrates the emergency department (ED) visit rate in 2022 for members in King County, which includes Seattle, with a serious mental illness who had a primary diagnosis related to mental health.

Figure 1. Washington State OIC Mental Health Dashboards (Geographical Overview Example)

Onpoint's health analytics team created these visualizations using Tableau, drawing upon claims and eligibility data from the Washington State All-Payer Health Care Claims Database (WA-APCD).

Onpoint implemented and maintains the WA-APCD, which is overseen by the Washington Health Care Authority (HCA). Our previous analytics work for Washington includes a report on the availability of gender-affirming care across the state and the impact of surprise-billing legislation on in-network rates for providers.

To learn more about the dashboards and the OIC's work related to mental health services, please visit the OIC website.