Advancing Mental Health and Addictions Care Through Value Based Payment Models
What is it about?
Value Base Care (VBC) models reward clinical outcomes and present new opportunities to expand and improve mental health and addictions care. Challenges include a fragmented care delivery system, unmet social, physical and economic conditions that impact upon health, high rates of addiction and low rates of patient engagement. Improvement strategies include integrated medical and psychiatric hospital-based care, community-based outreach and support, and accessible addictions care.
Why is it important?
In a fee-for-service (FFS) payment model, behavioral health services frequently cost more to deliver than the reimbursement rates could support. In VBC models, efforts to fully integrate behavioral health are essential to improve clinical outcomes and contain rising costs. The shift from FFS to VBC presents opportunities to improve and expand mental health and addictions services, but only if healthcare systems recognize and seize these opportunities.