Medical consolidation is boosting cancer treatment costs, while video doctor visits and mental health services are being underused despite great need and promise, studies out Thursday show.

The new research, among six studies released by the insurer-backed Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), doesn’t fit a theme other than that each is a health issue with costs that are affected by state and national policies.

“We are not the cost control institute,” said HCCI President David Newman. “We just want the money spent well.”

The studies do show that the health care delivery in this country doesn’t always make sense. While the use of nurse practitioners and telehealth have been proven to improve patients’ access to care and reduce costs, state laws often reduce their use, the studies show.

And despite a 2008 law requiring that insurers give people seeking mental health or addiction treatment the same coverage as they would any other disease, it has had only a limited effect on access to or use of mental health services by patients, researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine found.

Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D- R.I., who has become an outspoken advocate for mental health treatment, says he isn’t surprised. There’s a shortage of in-network mental health services and people can seldom afford to pay for out of network services. There are also not enough providers, he says, adding that telehealth and nurse practitioners could help solve some of these access issues.

“The whole system has been starved and marginalized for so long,” says Kennedy, author of the recent book A Common Struggle about his own mental health issues. “We’re still so stuck in a time warp.”

It is this kind of a nonsensical system that is undermining efforts to reduce cancer treatment costs.

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