Start-Up and Ongoing Practice Expenses of Behavioral Health and Primary Care Integration Interventions in the Advancing Care Together (ACT) Program.

PURPOSE: Provide credible estimates of the start-up and ongoing effort and incremental practice expenses for the Advancing Care Together (ACT) behavioral health and primary care integration interventions. METHODS: Expenditure data were collected from 10 practice intervention sites using an instrument with a standardized general format that could accommodate the unique elements of each intervention. RESULTS: Average start-up effort expenses were $44,076 and monthly ongoing effort expenses per patient were $40.39. Incremental expenses averaged $20,788 for start-up and $4.58 per patient for monthly ongoing activities. Variations in expenditures across practices reflect the differences in intervention specifics and organizational settings. Differences in effort to incremental expenditures reflect the extensive use of existing resources in implementing the interventions. CONCLUSIONS: ACT program incremental expenses suggest that widespread adoption would likely have a relatively modest effect on overall health systems expenditures. Practice effort expenses are not trivial and may pose barriers to adoption. Payers and purchasers interested in attaining widespread adoption of integrated care must consider external support to practices that accounts for both incremental and effort expense levels. Existing knowledge transfer mechanisms should be employed to minimize developmental start-up expenses and payment reform focused toward value-based, Triple Aim-oriented reimbursement and purchasing mechanisms are likely needed.

Financing mental health and substance use disorder care within physical health: a look to the future.

After sharing several case examples of health care for patients who have mental health/substance use disorders (MH/SUDs) in the current health care environment, this article describes the advantages that would occur if assessment and treatment of MH/SUDs became a clinical, administrative, and financial part of physical health with common provider networks, the ability to combine service locations (integrated clinics and inpatient units), similar coding and billing procedures, and a single funding pool. Because transition to such a system is complicated, the article then describes several process changes that would be required for integrated service delivery to take place.