Dive Brief:
- Health plans are paving the way toward successful collaborations with providers and patients to improve access to affordable, evidence-based behavioral healthcare, according to a new report from America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
- Insurers support the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), and are going beyond meeting the parity requirements of the act to better serve those with mental health and substance use disorders, the report stated.
- About 38 million people had coverage and access to behavioral healthcare in 2014, according to AHIP.
Dive Insight:
With new value-driven payment models favoring preventive care and management of chronic conditions, insurers are already embracing behavioral health as a key component to all-around health and cost control, the report suggested.
AHIP stressed that health plans are using the same evidence-based methodology to determine coverage policies for behavioral health benefits as they do for medical health benefits, and that they are engaging in numerous strategies, including raising member awareness of behavioral healthcare; integrating behavioral and medical healthcare; developing targeted programs for issues like opioid addiction; and focusing on proactive identification and outreach.
Furthermore, insurers are working to ensure the adequacy of provider networks, and to provide timely access to behavioral healthcare--a challenge given the national shortage of these providers.
AHIP's report detailed the behavioral health initiatives at a variety of organizations, including Blue Shield of California, CareFirst, Cigna, Highmark, Humana, and Kaiser Permanente.