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Integrating Health and Behavioral Health: Consider All the Dimensions
A discussion of integrated care should actually start by redefining the term itself. Integrated care is commonly considered the weaving together of physical and behavioral health, but experience has shown that this definition limits the discussion to two dimensions. What dimension is missing? What...
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Integrating Primary Care into Assertive Community Treatment
The great health disparities and poor health outcomes experienced by people with serious mental illness are even more significant for the people served by Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams. Individuals are eligible for ACT services if they have been hospitalized more than four times in the...
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Engaging Patients at Critical Moments is Key to Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes
Massachusetts is home to thousands of individuals with behavioral health needs who lack access to quality care. In fact, according to recent estimates, only 54 percent of adults with mental illness in Massachusetts receive any kind of mental or behavioral health treatment (SAMHSA, Behavioral Health...
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Co-Occurring System of Care Committees (COSOCCs): An Innovative Regional Approach to Integrated Care
The integration of care for individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders continues to elude our healthcare and social service systems despite a nearly universal acknowledgment of its importance, both to the individuals afflicted with these conditions and the viability of...
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An Introduction to Reimbursement and Coding for Psychiatric Collaborative Care Management Services
Integrated care has been recognized as a valuable tool for enhancing the overall health of individuals with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI) by improving access to care and treatment for co-morbid medical conditions often experienced by individuals with SPMI. Similar benefits are also...
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“Wrapping Around” Integrated Care
In 2014, Bergen’s Promise, Bergen County’s Care Management Organization within New Jersey’s Children’s System of Care (CSOC), took a bold step by agreeing to pilot a CSOC Behavioral Health Home; thus, establishing the first Pediatric Behavioral Health Home (BHH) in New Jersey and the first...
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The Physician Assistant Bridges the Gap in Integrated Care
A growing aging population, healthcare reform, earlier diagnosis of disease states and an overall sicker population with more comorbidities than ever before has created the need for a more collaborative relationship between primary care and behavioral health care providers. The traditional...
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The Critical Role of Relationships in Integrated Health Care Delivery
Integrated care models are now increasingly being adopted across all medical settings, including behavioral health. Their potential to help health care systems attain the triple aim of improving service quality, promoting population health and reducing costs has led policy makers to incentivize...
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The Case for Integrated Care
Often, individuals seeking services report that finding quality healthcare services can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. However, it does not have to be this way. There is an emerging trend in healthcare, Integrated Care that can radically shift this challenging experience. Integrated...
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Reducing Access Barriers through Collaborative Care
Poor access to behavioral health services remains a significant barrier to care for clients within our current healthcare landscape in the United States. According to Mental Health America, one out of every five American adults with a mental health condition, or about nine million adults, struggles...
