Driving Access and Quality: A Shift to Value-Based Behavioral Health Care

Multiple barriers exist to accessing behavioral health care, and several are related to payment. The national shortage of behavioral health providers is exacerbated by their not joining health insurance networks, often shifting the cost of treatment to patients. In the face of high out-of-network expenses, deductibles, and copays, many insured patients forgo behavioral health treatment altogether. However, even when patients access care, health outcomes are not routinely measured, and there is reason to suspect that the quality of care is poor. To address these issues, value-based reimbursement for behavioral health care offers a sustainable pathway to increase payment for providers in return for improved population health outcomes and costs. This article describes a comprehensive collaborative effort between a payer and a health care technology and services organization to support behavioral health providers to enter into value-based care. This approach changes financial incentives to drive improvements in behavioral health care access and quality.