FWe report prevalence and cost results for 8 years of administrative billing data, comparing the health costs of groups with and without mental health problems.

A data cube containing registration and visit data for all mental health cases was constructed and matched on age and sex in a ratio of 1:8 with non-mental health cases (n _TOTAL=681,676). Four groups emerged in the final dataset:

Group 1 - Those with mental health problems treated in publicly funded tertiary care (n=61,479);

Group2 - those with mental health problems treated in their doctors’ offices (n=272,120);

Group 3 - those with mental health problems treated in publicly funded tertiary care without treatment in their doctors’ offices (15,135); and

Group 4 - those without mental health problems (n=332,942).

At present we have examined the Physician billing data for those old and younger than or equal to 18 years of age, with the overall finding that the health costs (total costs - mental health costs) were greater for those with mental health problems in

Group 1 Case ($3,039 average per individual (API) over 8 years) and

Group 2 comparison ($2,554 API over 8 years) as compared to

Group 3 case ($1326) and

Group 4 comparison ($1089) API over 8 years).

Having a mental health problem has a profound impact on health-related expenditures.