Behavioral health – a complex and multifaceted problem – has taken a back seat to physical health for quite some time. But behavioral health has progressively risen to the top of the list of strategic priorities for many plans and provider organizations. These organizations are now recognizing behavioral health’s tremendous impact on clinical outcomes and overall cost of care, especially as significant investment dollars in the behavioral health space and greater clinical research efforts have further sparked greater recognition of the importance of addressing behavioral health.
Despite elevated interest in this space, much work is yet to be done, and the optimal “solution” remains unknown. We believe there are five key steps toward solving this challenge:
- Acknowledge and agree that behavioral health matters and that addressing behavioral health can have tremendous impact for patients, providers, and payers
- Recognize there is no “one right solution” and transition to a “suite of solutions” approach
- Assemble the right solution set to meet all patient population needs
- Match patients with the optimal treatment solution(s) and ensure engagement and access to high quality care solutions
- Develop systems and processes to monitor condition dynamics and make real-time adjustments to selected solution
In an upcoming series of articles, we will explore these five steps in more detail on the path to solving behavioral health. In this piece, we explore the first two of these critical steps
