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The Vital Role of Behavioral Health: Driving Better Health Outcomes by Integrating Services
Behavioral and physical healthcare in New York State are going through an unprecedented transformation. Medicaid redesign, implementation of a health benefit exchange, a transition from fee-for-service to managed behavioral healthcare, integration of behavioral health with primary healthcare,...
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The Challenges of Integrated Health Care
One of the most talked about issues in both the behavioral health and medical field is the integration of behavioral and physical health services. In fact, SAMHSA has reworked their definition of recovery to include physical health: A process through which individuals improve their health and...
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Integrating Physical and Behavioral Health Care Systems: Lessons Learned in New York City
In New York City, as elsewhere, people with mental illnesses have worse physical health outcomes, on average, than the rest of the population. An estimated 239,000 New Yorkers live with serious mental illnesses, or SMI (Community Mental Health Survey 2012). They are significantly more likely to...
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From Transition to Transformation
The New York State behavioral health system’s evolution toward greater care integration and accountability and a focus on recovery will include larger roles for managed care organizations in developing and managing systems of care, expanded care coordination and case management services, and new...
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Crucial Time for Change: NYS’s Behavioral Health Care Transformation
New York State’s behavioral health care transformation is the most significant shift in mental health policy since deinstitutionalization over a half a century ago. Despite improvements that emerged as a result of the shift from an institutional to community-based system of care, significant...
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How Managed Care Influences Treatment Plans
Until about 20 years ago, mental health professionals set fees based on training and experience and were reimbursed by health insurance companies a fair percentage of the bill. Mental health benefits are now part of managed care networks, meaning that patients are narrowly restricted to...
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Will Managed Care Advance the Goals of Community Mental Health?
In the middle of the 20th century, when American mental health policy switched from institution-based to community-based, the primary goal was to enable people with severe, chronic mental illness to live freely and safely in the community with the same rights as other Americans. Considerable...
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Perspectives on the Transition to Managed Care
The year 2014 will provide opportunities for OASAS and the other behavioral health agencies in New York as we prepare for the transition to Medicaid Managed Care beginning in 2015. The goal of this change is to create a system that provides New Yorkers with fully integrated behavioral health...
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Practical Tips to Working with Managed Care
With the changes to managed Medicaid, it is important for therapists to be ready to advocate for their clients and for the care they deserve. After over sixteen years of dealing with managed care, there are certain tips that might be helpful if you are new to the process of calling companies. Often...
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Positioning for the New York State Managed Care Transition
Preparing your leadership and line staff for the “managed care transition,” can seem daunting and perplexing. There is no simple formula that applies to providers in general, or certain types of providers, except in the broadest sense. Rather, it involves a critical assessment of strengths,...
