BHI Healthcare Leadership Summit

Setting the scene for the day’s sessions and activities.

Behavioral health integration in California is at an inflection point, shaped by policy momentum, delivery system transformation and growing demand for equitable, whole-person care. This session brings together leaders from health systems, purchasers and state agencies to unpack where integration stands today and what it will take to move forward. Panelists will highlight emerging trends, persistent barriers and critical opportunities across financing, care delivery and workforce. Grounded in real-world experience, the discussion will explore how organizations can translate statewide priorities into operational change. Attendees will gain a clear view of the current landscape and leave with insights to inform strategic planning, partnership development, investment priorities and implementation strategies.

• Carmen Kastrov, LPCC, CCM, Executive Director, Behavioral Health Integration, CalOptima
• Debbie Lindes, MD, MPH, Manager, Health Care Delivery System Group, California Department of Health Care Access and Information, Office of Health Care Affordability
• Tam Nguyen, PhD, Executive, Ambulatory Behavioral Health, Sutter Health
• Raymond Tsai, MD, Vice-President, Purchaser Business Group on Health

Meeting the behavioral health needs of children and adolescents requires care models that are developmentally appropriate, family-centered and deeply integrated into primary care. This session highlights how Rady Children’s Health in San Diego, a national leader in pediatric integrated care, has built and strengthened its pediatric integration model through embedded behavioral health clinicians and adapted workflows for early identification and intervention. Speakers will share practical lessons on overcoming access challenges, aligning care teams and delivering coordinated services across settings. Drawing on real-world implementation experience, the session will demonstrate how integrated approaches can improve outcomes, reduce fragmentation and strengthen family engagement.

• Hilary M. Bowers, MD, FAAP, Senior Director of Behavioral and Mental Health Services, Children’s Primary Care Medical Group
• Anne Bird, MD, Medical Program Director, Transforming Mental Health and Primary Care Mental Health Integration, Rady Children’s Health San Diego; Clinical Professor, University of California San Diego Health
• Nicole Carr-Lee, PsyD, Director of Behavioral Health Integrated Services, Rady Children’s Health

High-functioning, patient-centered care teams are foundational to successful behavioral health integration and require intentional redesign of roles, workflows and communication pathways. This session explores how organizations are transforming team-based care to support integration, with a focus on gathering and acting on patient feedback d improving the patient experience. Attendees will gain practical insights into how to build, sustain and scale integrated care teams that are responsive, efficient and patient-centered.

• TBD

Scaling behavioral health integration from pilot to statewide impact requires alignment, adaptability and sustained investment. In this session, leaders from participating organizations of the CalHIVE Behavioral Health Integration improvement collaborative will share lessons learned from implementing and expanding integrated care across diverse organizations. Panelists will discuss the operational, clinical and organizational strategies that enabled scale, as well as the barriers they encountered along the way. The conversation will highlight how teams navigated variation across practice settings, leveraged data to guide improvement and built momentum beyond early implementation toward building sustainable, system-wide integration plan.

• Dan Blocker, PhD, LMFT, Associate Program Director/Director of Behavioral Health, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center
• Gurinder Dabhia, MD, Pediatrician, Scripps Medical Group
• Jiami Wu, Director of Clinics, Chinese Hospital
• Lesley Manson, PsyD, Clinical Associate Professor, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University (Moderator)

As expectations for accountability grow, organizations must move beyond collecting data and use it to actively drive improvement in behavioral health integration. This Collaborative Lab will explore how leading organizations are selecting meaningful measures, aligning clinical and quality metrics and embedding data into day-to-day decision-making. Experts will walk through practical approaches to tracking process and outcome measures, identifying gaps and using data to strengthen care delivery. The session will also highlight national efforts to improve behavioral health measurement in primary care. Participants will engage in discussion about how to operationalize measurement strategies across teams and systems.

• Neftali Serrano, PsyD, Chief Executive Officer, Collaborative Family Healthcare Association
• William Sieber, PhD, Chief and Clinical Director, UC San Diego Integrated Behavioral Health
• Liane Wardlow, PhD, Senior Director, Clinical Research & Telehealth, West Health
• Jennifer Lenz, MPH, Vice President, Quality Solutions Group, National Committee for Quality Assurance

Workforce capacity remains one of the most pressing challenges to advancing behavioral health integration at scale. This session focuses on innovative approaches to building and sustaining the workforce needed to support integrated care, including emerging roles, training models and cross-sector partnerships. Presenters will highlight how organizations are redesigning staffing structures, expanding nontraditional roles and creating career pathways within integrated care settings. The session will also explore strategies to support workforce resilience and retention in high-demand environments.

• Jeremy Fish, MD, Family Medicine Residency Director, John Muir Health
• Katie Steele, PhD, Director of Research and Learning for the Center for Health Systems Transformation, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute
• Julian Mitton, MD, MPH, Head of Clinical Operations, Era Supports

Sustainable behavioral health integration requires financing models that align incentives with whole-person care. This session will explore how providers, payers and purchasers are advancing payment approaches that support integrated delivery, including value-based models and multi-payer strategies. Panelists will share real-world examples of how organizations are navigating the shift from fragmented reimbursement to more coordinated, accountable payment structures. The discussion will also address the operational implications of these models, including contracting and care redesign.

• Chris Botts, Director, Value-Based Care, American Medical Association
• Reshma Gupta, MD, MSHPM, Chief of Population Health and Accountable Care, UC Davis Health
• Caity Haas, LCSW, Principal Clinical Program Manager, Blue Shield of CA
• Julia Logan, MD, MPH, Chief Clinical Director, California Public Employees’ Retirement System
• Lorin Scher, MD, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis Health

Final closing remarks and commitments to furthering behavioral health integration in California.