Improving public/private partnership in managed behavioral healthcare

This paper is the second version of a working document developed to explore opportunities and difficulties in the national shift to managed care in the public sector. Leaders in the public and private sectors continue their collaboration in contributing new models of integration that preserve the best of the public system but challenge the field to combine social mission with good business practice. The first version was developed by the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. This document, developed by AMBHA, NASMHPD, the National Association of County Behavioral Health Directors, and the National Council of Community Mental Health Centers, expands on the first white paper, published here in October 1995, and is based on developing issues and concerns in public sector managed behavioral healthcare. This paper is not intended to represent prescriptive standards but rather to articulate "best practice" in an area that continually changes as public payors privatize significantly larger portions of public mental health. In April 1996, Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow published a response from the consumer advocacy perspective, and the ideas presented in this paper remain open to input and discussion.