Ten community-based behavioral health care agencies announced that they have joined together to establish the Behavioral Health NYC IPA, LLC (BHNYC), an independent practice association (IPA) in New York City. BHNYC was established with a mission to provide rapid access to mental health and substance abuse services that are embedded in the community and delivered by culturally-competent and linguistically diverse clinicians serving individuals and families with complex needs across their lifespan. This new collaboration brings together a myriad of meaningful cross-sector partnerships with social service agencies, hospitals, and primary care physicians, as well as a variety of evidence- and population-based service models, to fill critical service gaps to care.
The majority of BHNYC network agencies initially partnered in 1960 to form the Federation of Mental Health Services, a trade association and lobbying organization, under the common goal of serving underserved, low-income populations. “BHNYC represents decades of behavioral health advocacy efforts by the Federation of Mental Health Services and its members to improve patient access and engagement with quality mental health and substance use services,” said Robert Basile, Psy.D., Co-Chair of BHNYC and President of the Federation of Mental Health Services. “The formation of BHNYC is a key milestone not only for our individual agencies, but also for the communities we serve. With this formal collaboration, we now bring together our best minds and community advocates under one entity to collectively improve the health of the population we serve.”
The establishment of BHNYC enables each of the ten network agencies to preserve their unique relationships with the individuals and communities they currently serve, while offering opportunities for care coordination that provides patients with easier access to care and improved health outcomes. The thirty-five affiliate providers, which include health systems, primary care providers, and community-based organizations will collaborate with the IPA to further improve care across the continuum.
“We are pleased to work with BHNYC to help meet the behavioral health needs of our shared communities,” said Isaac Kastenbaum, Director of Population Health at the NewYork-Presbyterian Performing Provider System, one of BHNYC’s affiliate providers. “We look forward to working together to improve the health of the diverse populations we serve.”
BHNYC was established as a Behavioral Health Care Collaborative (BHCC), a grant-funded entity under the Department of Health (DOH) Value-Based Payment (VBP) Readiness program for Behavioral Health providers. The collective work of the BHNYC ensures network-wide readiness in accordance with New York State’s VBP Roadmap for Medicaid payment reform. The goal of BHNYC is to engage in meaningful VBP arrangements with managed care organizations, through quality improvement initiatives that will establish standardized cost-effective service delivery models to improve patient outcomes. BHNYC is made up of the following ten network agencies:
- Arista Center for Psychotherapy, Inc.
- Bleuler Psychotherapy Center, Inc.
- Camelot of Staten Island, Inc.
- Elmcor Youth and Adult Activities, Inc.
- Inwood Community Services
- Long Island Consultation Center, Inc.
- Metropolitan Center for Mental Health
- Park Slope Center for Mental Health, Inc.
- Queens County Neuropsychiatric Institute, Inc.
- Shiloh Consulting LLC
For more information on BHNYC, please visit: www.bhnycipa.com.
