Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Health Administration

College

College of Health Professions

First Advisor

Jillian B. Harvey

Second Advisor

Ron Acierno

Third Advisor

Libby Dismuke

Abstract

Many veterans who need mental health treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) encounter significant barriers to care. Home-based telehealth is one of the solutions proposed to increase veterans access to care. This study examined the direct and indirect costs associated with delivering Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD through home-based telehealth compared to standard in-person PE. Economic outcomes included comparing the total cost of both treatment modalities, and looking at the difference in health services utilization costs between 1-year post-intervention and 1-year pre-intervention. The home-based telehealth condition had a mean of $3,625.70 cost savings in total health care utilization costs from pre-post intervention per participant compared to participants receiving treatment in person. There was no significant difference in the cost of the intervention between home-based telehealth and in person care. While the intervention costs were stable among the two treatment modalities, veterans receiving PE over home-based telehealth had lower total health care utilization costs 1 year after the intervention compared to the in-person condition. These results indicate that home-based telehealth is a cost saving method of delivering PE relative to in person delivery.

Rights

All rights reserved. Copyright is held by the author.

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