Behavioral Health's Integration Within a Care Network and Health Care Utilization.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Health Economics
• Social Network Analysis

Background:

• Behavioral health (BH) integration is a key strategy for improving patient care and outcomes.
• Understanding the impact of BH integration on healthcare utilization and costs is crucial for resource allocation and policy development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the effect of behavioral health integration on healthcare costs, emergency department (ED) visits, and inpatient admissions.
• To quantify the relationship between the centrality of BH providers within care communities and patient healthcare utilization.

Main Methods:

• Utilized social network analysis to identify care communities and measure BH provider centrality.
• Employed multivariable generalized linear models to analyze claims data from six Medicaid plans (2011-2013).
• Adjusted for patient demographics, comorbidities, and prescription data.

Main Results:

• Increased behavioral centrality was significantly associated with reduced healthcare utilization.
• Patients in communities with higher BH centrality experienced fewer inpatient admissions (0.2 fewer), fewer ED visits (2.1 fewer), and lower costs ($1,947 less) on average.
• BH centrality ranged from 0 to 0.49, with the 75th percentile showing significant improvements compared to the median.

Conclusions:

• Greater integration and centrality of behavioral health providers within care networks lead to significant reductions in healthcare utilization and costs.
• This study highlights the financial and clinical benefits of robust behavioral health integration in healthcare systems.