Medicare policy is evolving to encourage providers to take a more active role in addressing the behavioral health needs of their patients.
In traditional Medicare, new payment codes encourage practitioners to spend more time identifying and helping patients with their behavioral health challenges.
Meanwhile, CMS and its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation have introduced several new care and payment models that place a greater emphasis on beneficiaries’ behavioral health needs. Among them:
- The LEAD (Long-Term Enhanced ACO Design) Model, which seeks to include more behavioral health providers and encourages greater integration of behavioral health care.
- The ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) Model, which focuses on using technology as a tool for supporting behavioral health.
- The MAHA ELEVATE (Make America Healthy Again, Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-Based Approaches Through Evidence) Model, which brings a greater emphasis on lifestyle improvements and health promotion as tools to improve behavioral health.
Learn more about the latest efforts to integrate behavioral health more effectively in Medicare from the Commonwealth Fund report “Innovation in Payment to Help Patients Get Needed Mental Health Care.”