Impact of an Oregon health policy aimed at strengthening adolescent linkage to outpatient mental health care from the emergency department.

Background: Oregon introduced a state policy, HB 3090, on October 6, 2017, which increased requirements on emergency departments (EDs) to improve transitions to outpatient mental health care. The objective of this study was to examine the policy's impact among low-income adolescent patients who face severe barriers to follow-up.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of visits by Medicaid enrollees ages 14-18 presenting to any Oregon ED for a mental health concern between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2019. We calculated standardized mean differences and used interrupted time series models to evaluate the association of HB 3090 with 14-day mental health follow-up, in-ED services, and inpatient admissions, adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, primary language, and calendar months.

Results: Among 26,071 adolescent mental health-related ED visits, we found an estimated increase of 3.63 percentage points (pp; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.27 to 6.99) in the adjusted probability of a 14-day outpatient mental health claim postpolicy. However, this effect was attenuated over time, with a slope change of -0.25 pp (95% CI -0.5 to 0) for each month thereafter. The probability of receiving mental health services in the ED or inpatient admission did not change in association with the policy.

Conclusions: There was a small increase in short-term outpatient mental health visits after the policy, but the association weakened over time, and other key outcomes did not change. Putting pressure on EDs to perform better in this area is likely to be a minimally effective strategy without accompanying strengthening of mental health resources.