Behavioral Health Integration Implementation Webinar Series
Webinar 1: Readiness for Behavioral Health Integration
September 10, 2024
This session explored key characteristics that set organizations up for integrating behavioral health into primary care and offered approaches for building internal readiness.
Key Takeaways:
- Prepare early. Begin laying the groundwork for behavioral health integration before hiring behavioral health providers, recognizing that it represents a transformation of practice.
- Strengthen education. Continuously educate and provide peer support to enable providers to effectively implement and adapt to behavioral health integration.
- Integrate holistically. Develop care models that support the most pressing patient needs at your practice.
- Prepare internally. Review legal and site-specific requirements, improve communication with stakeholders and expand workforce capabilities.
- Identify Return on Investment. Construct a compelling business case to underscore the benefits, such as enhanced patient outcomes and improved operational efficiencies.
Webinar Materials:
Speakers & Resources
Stephanie Gold, MD, FAAFP, Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Denver Health | University of Colorado, Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center
Lesley Manson, PsyD, Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Associate Chair of Integrated Initiatives, Integrated Behavioral Health, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University
Webinar 2: Behavioral Health Integration Lessons Learned
November 13, 2024
This session synthesized actionable insights and lessons learned from CQC’s three-year technical assistance improvement program, the CalHIVE Behavioral Health Integration Collaborative.
Key Takeaways:
- Adopt “bright spots.” Implement proven strategies for improving depression screenings and launching integrated care models, supported by real-world lessons learned.
- Collaborate often. Engage primary care and behavioral health providers, payers and other stakeholders early and consistently.
- Identify improvements. Regularly evaluate and adjust processes based on feedback and performance data to sustain effective care models.
- Engage patients: Prioritize patient outcomes by incorporating patient feedback to best address physical and mental health.
Webinar Materials:
Speakers
Kristina Mody, Director, Practice Transformation, California Quality Collaborative, Purchaser Business Group on Health
Mary Nickel-Nguy, DSW, Senior Manager, Behavioral Health Integration, California Quality Collaborative, Purchaser Business Group on Health
Daniela Vela Hernandez, LMFT, Technical Assistance Associate, Collaborative Family Healthcare Association
Webinar 3: Behavioral Health Integration Spread and Sustain
January 8, 2025
This session highlighted approaches to successfully spread integration across practice sites, offered approaches to engaging partners in integration efforts, and identified solutions to sustaining quality, access and financial targets.
Key Takeaways:
- Evaluate internally. Assess your organization’s geography, specific needs and financial readiness before scaling, ensuring clear definitions around program’s scope and boundaries across all providers and care teams.
- Strengthen education. Incorporate behavioral health integration into coursework and training earlier and more often. Consider developing training programs for integrated care that leverage existing resources and shadowing opportunities.
- Improve payment. Increase reimbursement for integrated interventions, such as warm handoffs, in primary care.
- Adopt shared definitions. Align stakeholder groups around the common elements of behavioral health integration in California to facilitate better communication and advocacy with payers.
Webinar Materials:
Resources
- Webinar: Readiness for BHI (CQC, Sept. 2024)
- BHI Team Description Worksheet (CQC, BHI Curriculum)
- BHI Self-Assessment (Maine Health Access Foundation)
- BHI Implementation Plan (CQC)
- BHI Implementation Snapshot: Selecting an Integration Model (CQC)
- Webinar: BHI Concepts & Models (CQC, June 2023)
- Training and Workforce Development (Collaborative Family Healthcare Association)
- Hiring and Onboarding Integrated Behavioral Health Providers in Primary Care (Rocky Mountain Health Plan)
- Team Building and Workflow Guide (AIMS Center)
- BHI Workflow Guide (American Medical Association [AMA])
- BHI Workflow Example (AMA)
- BHI Workflow Plan Resource (AMA)
- Sustainable Behavioral Health Integration Financing: Successful Practices and Opportunities (CQC Issue Brief, Oct. 2024)
- CQC BHI Billing and Payment Codes (CQC, 2024)
- STEPS Forward Behavioral Health Integration Into Primary Care (AMA)
- Practice Integration Profile (UMass Center for Integrated Primary Care)
- Behavioral Health Observation Rating Scale (ORS) (CFHA)