Darrel Regier, M.D, M.P.H., was recently lauded by the U.S. Public Health Service for his work in helping to achieve insurance parity for federal workers and for contributing to the first Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health.

Regier and colleagues were presented with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service for developing a parity agreement with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that will grant mental health benefits to 9 million federal workers and their families insured under the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).

Around 300 insurance companies have been mandated to provide coverage of mental health care with limits that are the same as those for other kinds of care. The benefits are expected to take effect in January 2001.

In his efforts to develop a mental health parity benefit with OPM, whose team was led by Frank Titus, M.B.A., and Abby Block, M.S.W., M.B.A., Regier worked with Virginia Betts, M.S.N., J.D., from the Office of the Surgeon General, Kevin Hennessy, Ph.D., of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, as well as Eric Goplerud, Ph.D., Mady Chalk, Ph.D., and Jeff Buck, Ph.D., of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

As the executive director of the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE) and head of APA’s Office of Research, Regier looks forward to expanding upon the progress made in mental health parity.

"The Practice Research Network (PRN) of APA offers an infrastructure for studying the impact of the new FEHBP parity on psychiatric practice in areas, such as Washington, D.C., which have a high concentration of federal employees and dependents," he said. "We plan to work with leaders of the federal evaluation contract effort and with APA members to obtain an objective assessment of the improvements and limitations of any such parity-benefit expansion in the context of the increased management that may accompany this new policy."

Regier acknowledged the collaborative nature of the negotiations. "When President Clinton officially announced plans for a mental health parity benefit for all federal employees and dependents at the White House Conference on Mental Health in June 1999," he stated, "we could all look back with gratitude for the team effort that had made this possible."

Regier also received two awards relating to his contribution to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report—one from Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, and the other from NIMH Director Steven Hyman, M.D. The historic 500-page report, which was issued in December 1999, is a compendium of the latest research on mental health. Many experts in psychiatry worked on the report under the guidance of senior scientific editor Howard Goldman, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland’s school of medicine.

Regier was pleased to be a part of the large number of federal staff who contributed to the report. "It was particularly gratifying to receive these awards shortly after my official retirement as an associate director of NIMH and an assistant surgeon general in the U.S. Public Health Service on April 30," Regier told Psychiatric News.

His specific role was to create the chapter on the organization and financing of mental health services. Regier led a team that included Ron Mandersheid, Ph.D., and Jeff Buck, Ph.D. of the Center for Mental Health Services; Richard Frank, Ph.D., of Harvard; and Agnes Rupp, Ph.D., William Narrow, M.D., M.P.H., and Anne Rosenfield of NIMH. According to Regier, the team conducted an extensive literature review, wrote the chapter, and responded to the many comments from outside peer reviewers.

Regier looked back on the alliances that made everything possible. "My 25 years of service in these organizations was productive and rewarding because of the many similar teams we could bring together to improve research, training, and services on behalf of our patients, their families, and the mental health professionals who serve them," he added. "I’m delighted to be able to build on that legacy in establishing new collaborative relationships at APA."