Access and coverage for mental health and substance use care continue to lag behind physical health care — in network composition, reimbursement rates for providers, and costs to individuals. In Illinois alone, outpatient mental health services are reimbursed 27% less on average than outpatient physical health services.
Until recently, it wasn’t possible to clearly quantify these disparities, making it more difficult to enforce mental health parity, a federal law requiring insurance could not limit mental health care coverage more strictly than physical health coverage. The release of new Health Plan Transparency data created an opportunity to surface critical information, but making that data understandable and actionable required intentional design and cross-sector collaboration.
The Mental Health Parity Index, launched last month in Illinois, was developed to meet that need. Presented by The Kennedy Forum in collaboration with the American Medical Association and Third Horizon, with support from InterKnowlogy, this interactive tool enables insurers, employers, providers, consumers, and policymakers to identify where gaps in parity exist — and where action is most urgently needed.
The release of Health Plan Transparency data marked a significant opportunity to assess how insurers cover mental health and substance use disorder care. For the first time, detailed information on in-network providers and reimbursement rates became publicly available across commercial health plans.
However, availability doesn’t equal accessibility. The raw data is vast, fragmented, and can be difficult to interpret.
The Index transforms complex, plan-level data into an interactive, county-level view of where parity gaps exist — including disparities in network composition, outpatient reimbursement rates, and inpatient hospital payments. What once was hidden from public view is now accessible through a visual public tool designed for policy decisions, evaluation, and system transformation.
When data becomes accessible, it becomes actionable. The Mental Health Parity Index equips a range of stakeholders with the ability to identify disparities and enact change:
This is what accessibility looks like in practice: giving key stakeholders the ability to see problems clearly and the data to push for quantifiable change.
Third Horizon led the data science and analytics effort — ingesting terabytes of machine-readable files, identifying the relevant metrics, and developing the methodology behind The Mental Health Parity Index itself. Their work revealed patterns in coverage that had long gone unseen, quantifying how far mental health care access and coverage lags behind physical health care across all plans and geographies.
To make those insights accessible, InterKnowlogy supported the design and development of the public-facing visualization tool. Built using its Enterprise Insights platform, the goal was to translate complex data into a visual, intuitive experience that could be used by policymakers, employers, advocates, and the general public.
That work focused on three priorities:
The result is a tool that brings long-standing disparities into focus, and makes it easier for industry and policy decision-makers to respond. The Mental Health Parity Index turns complex insurer data into clear, public insight that anyone can use to drive change.
This cross-sector collaboration shows what’s possible when policy, data, and technology come together around a shared goal, and it’s a model that can be applied far beyond health care.
Discover Third Horizon’s work in transforming health and social systems to better serve communities.
Learn more about how InterKnowlogy’s Enterprise Insights Platform powers tools like the Mental Health Parity Index — making complex data accessible, scalable, and actionable across industries.
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