# Access to Mental Health Care Specialists in Medicare Advantage: Improving Outcomes for Older Adults

> **NIH NIH K01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $181,768

## Abstract

Project Summary
Candidate: Mark K. Meiselbach is an early career health economist and health services researcher. His long-
term career goal is to become a leading mental health services researcher whose research informs policies to
improve access to mental and behavioral health treatment for underserved populations.
Research Context: There is a growing mental health crisis among older adults, but most older adults with
mental illness do not receive treatment. This may be exacerbated by the rapid growth of Medicare Advantage
(MA), which now enrolls most Medicare beneficiaries, as Dr. Meiselbach’s recent work shows that few
psychiatrists accept MA plans compared to traditional Medicare or other forms of insurance. There is a critical
need to understand access to mental health specialists in MA and how networks for mental health specialists
in MA impact mental health care and outcomes for older adults.
Specific Aims: Using Medicare claims data with novel data linkages, we will 1) characterize variation in
geographic access to mental health specialists for older adults; 2) evaluate the impact of access to in-network
mental health specialists in MA on utilization of mental health care and clinical outcomes among older adults in
MA; and 3) investigate patient- and provider-level factors that modify the impact of access to in-network mental
health specialists on utilization of mental health care and clinical outcomes.
Career Development Plan: Dr. Meiselbach has a strong foundation in health policy, economics, and
econometrics and substantial experience working with administrative claims data and other large databases.
To achieve his long-term career goals, however, he needs to bolster his skillset to better understand how the
quantitative findings of his research relate to the experience of patients and clinicians and how to translate
these findings to meaningful policy change. Through this K01 career development award, he will receive
training to 1) enhance his clinical understanding of mental health treatment in older adults, 2) gain expertise in
geospatial measurement and modeling, 3) become expert in causal inference in mental health research, and 4)
develop independence and leadership skills to inform policies that improve access to mental health care. Dr.
Meiselbach’s mentorship team includes experts in mental health services research, geriatrics and geriatric
psychiatry, spatial statistics, causal inference, economics, and policy dissemination.
Research Goals: The goal of this research is to evaluate the impact of access to mental health specialists on
older adults and identify the geographic areas and factors associated with worse access. Provider networks in
MA are a mutable policy target. These findings can directly inform policies, such as network adequacy
regulation, to improve access to mental health care and outcomes for older adults. The proposed study is
closely aligned with NIMH’s strategic goal 4 to: Advance Mental Health Services to ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10947139
- **Project number:** 1K01MH137322-01
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark Meiselbach
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $181,768
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-07-18 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10947139

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10947139, Access to Mental Health Care Specialists in Medicare Advantage: Improving Outcomes for Older Adults (1K01MH137322-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10947139. Licensed CC0.

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