CMS to Host Summit on Behavioral Health Payment, Care Delivery
CMS extended an invitation to healthcare stakeholders to develop new behavioral health payment and care delivery models.
Source: Thinkstock
By - CMS has opened registration for a one-day summit where healthcare experts can discuss ideas about innovative behavioral health payment models and related care delivery systems.
The Behavioral Health Payment and Care Delivery Summit will take place Friday, September 8 at CMS’s headquarters in Baltimore. Expected summit attendees include behavioral health-focused community organizations, providers, patient advocacy groups, caregivers, non-Federal organizations, and other interested parties.
A full agenda is posted on the Federal Register, including specific objectives to promote payer participation in new behavioral health care models. These models are intended to treat various mental conditions under Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP.
“The Innovation Center is interested in designing a potential payment or service delivery model to improve health care quality and access, while lowering the cost of care for Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP beneficiaries with behavioral health conditions,” the document reads.
“The model may include participation by other payers, qualify as an Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM), improve health care provider participation in telehealth services, and address the needs of beneficiaries with deficits in care in the following potential areas leading to poor clinical outcomes or potentially avoidable expenditures: (1) Substance use disorders; (2) mental disorders in the presence of co-occurring conditions; (3) Alzheimer's disease and related dementias; and/or (4) behavioral health workforce challenges.”
The day is broken up into four panels that discusses unique challenges in behavioral healthcare delivery.
Organizations and individuals that attend the panels will have two minutes to submit individual brief statements to other participants, can ask panelists questions, and listen to experiences of behavioral health specialists when it comes to payment and delivering mental health services.
CMS will then use the information gathered at the summit to assist the design of potential payment model tests and service delivery model tests focused on addressing the opioid crisis, serious mental illnesses, and dementia, as well as improving provider participation in Medicaid/Medicare behavioral treatment and expanding telehealth for behavioral health care.
Interested stakeholders can register here by August 25.
