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Special Report: Annotated Bibliography for
Managed Behavioral Health Care 1989-1999
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
138. Kent, J. (1990). The role of employee assistance programs in managed
mental health care. Medical Interface, 14, 25-28.
Mental health problems of employees can be extremely costly to employers in terms of lost
productivity, low morale, and worker’s compensation. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
were developed as a way for employers to provide cost-effective mental health services to their
employees. This article provides criteria for evaluating EAPs and describes a typical EAP serv-ice
package and an effective psychiatric review process.
Keywords: EAPs
139. Major, C. (1993). EAPs as customers of managed mental health.
Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 21, 35-39.
This article describes AT&T’s internal employee assistance program and its efforts to promote
quality care by monitoring the managed care provider network and using clinical practice
guidelines to evaluate client needs and treatment outcomes. The author suggests ways of
obtaining and maintaining a high-quality panel of providers and describes the benefits of clini-cal
practice guidelines. In addition to providing a flexible method for consistent but individual-ized
clinical decision-making, guidelines also are the basis for clinical outcome studies to meas-ure
effectiveness and appropriateness of treatment decisions and become the foundation for
continuous quality improvement.
Keywords: EAPs
140. Masi, D. A., & Caplan, R. (1992). Employee assistance programs.
In J. Feldman & R. J. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Managed mental health care:
Administrative and clinical issues (1st ed., pp. 321-333). Washington, DC:
American Psychiatric Press.
This chapter describes the evolution of employee assistance programs (EAPs) from the 1940s
when they were designed in response to alcoholism among employees. The authors describe
several models of employee assistance programs and ingredients of effective EAPs. They
describe the differences and similarities between EAPs and HMOs and show why the interface
between the two is sometimes conflictual. The three major problems between HMOs and EAPs
arise over clashes in the gatekeeping role, in choice of preferred provider, and through general
lack of communication. The authors describe current trends that have implications for the
future of EAPs. They argue that the four factors that will have direct impact on the future of
EAPs are (1) the role of EAPs in managed mental health; (2) the focus on drug abuse in the Special
workplace; (3) the increasing number of persons affected by AIDS; and (4) the growing need
for quality management and clinical evaluation by third parties.
Keywords: EAPs, overviews, trends
141. Miller, N. A. (1992). An evaluation of substance misuse treatment
providers used by an employee assistance program. The International
Journal of the Addictions, 27, 533-559.
Thirty fee-for-service (FFS) facilities and nine HMOs were analyzed to determine the pro-vider
characteristics that are most likely to increase access and improve outcomes for people
referred for substance abuse problems. This article evaluates measures of access to care, conti-nuity,
and quality of treatment programs to which 243 employees of one public sector pro-gram
were referred by their employee assistance program (EAP). The study recommends that
EAPs develop a mechanism to evaluate providers on an ongoing basis. One mechanism sug-gested
is a precontract request for proposals in which treatment providers document that they
provide those characteristics shown to increase access and improve treatment outcomes. Some
of these characteristics include use of a multidisciplinary treatment team, provision of coordi-nated
treatment services, and provision of a treatment program that enables an employee to
directly contact and enter a treatment program.
Keywords: EAPs, evaluation, substance abuse
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