Analysis of the Association of Clubhouse Membership with Overall Costs of Care for Mental Health Treatment

We examined whether frequency of attendance at the B’More Clubhouse was associated with lower mental health care costs in the Medicaid database, and whether members in the B’More Clubhouse (n = 30) would have lower mental health care costs compared with a set of matched controls from the same claims database (n = 150). Participants who attended the Clubhouse 3 days or more per week had mean 1-year mental health care costs of US $5697, compared to $14,765 for those who attended less often. B’More Clubhouse members had significantly lower annual total mental health care costs than the matched comparison group ($10,391 vs. $15,511; p < 0.0001). Membership in the B’More Clubhouse is associated with a substantial beneficial influence on health care costs.