Care Coordination and Population Health Management Strategies and Challenges in a Behavioral Health Home Model.

OBJECTIVES: Behavioral health home (BHH) models have been developed to integrate physical and mental health care and address medical comorbidities for individuals with serious mental illnesses. Previous studies identified population health management capacity and coordination with primary care providers as key barriers to BHH implementation. This study examines the BHH leaders' perceptions of and organizational capacity to conduct these functions within the community mental health programs implementing BHHs in Maryland. METHODS: Interviews and surveys were conducted with 72 implementation leaders and 627 front-line staff from 46 of 48 Maryland BHH programs. In-depth coding of the population health management and primary care coordination themes identified subthemes related to these topics. RESULTS: BHH staff described cultures supportive of evidence-based practices, but limited ability to effectively perform population health management or primary care coordination. Tension between population health management and direct, clinical care, lack of experience, and state regulations for service delivery were identified as key challenges for population health management. Engaging primary care providers was the primary barrier to care coordination. Health information technology and staffing were barriers to both functions. CONCLUSIONS: BHHs face a number of barriers to effective implementation of core program elements. To improve programs' ability to conduct effective population health management and care coordination and meaningfully impact health outcomes for individuals with serious mental illness, multiple strategies are needed, including formalized protocols, training for staff, changes to financing mechanisms, and health information technology improvements.

Measuring Variation Across Dimensions of Integrated Care: The Maryland Medicaid Health Home Model.

Despite the proliferation of initiatives to integrate services for people with serious mental illness (SMI), measures of distinct dimensions of integration, such as spatial arrangement and care team expertise, are lacking. Such measures are needed to support organizations' assessment of progress toward integrated service delivery. We developed measures characterizing integration of behavioral, somatic, and social services to operationalize the integrated care dimensions conceived by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In a survey fielded to 46 Maryland Medicaid health homes (response rate: 96%) serving adults with SMI during 2015-2016, we found that these measures provided a useful description of variation across dimensions of integration.

The Relationship Between Controlled Substances and Violence.

A causal relationship between controlled substances and firearm violence has been widely assumed in the United States, and federal law prohibits individuals who are "unlawful users of or addicted to any controlled substance" from purchasing or possessing firearms (68 FR 3750. 2003. Codified at 27 CFR §478.11). However, the law does a poor job of defining "unlawful users," resulting in recent calls for a revised, actionable definition. Such a definition should be informed by research evidence, but to date the epidemiologic research on the relationship between controlled substances and violence has not been comprehensively reviewed. The initial goal of this review was to summarize the best available evidence on the relationship between controlled substances and firearm violence, but only 1 study specific to firearm violence was identified. We therefore reviewed studies of this relationship using broader measures of interpersonal violence and suicide, all of which included but were not limited to firearm violence, and measures of illicit firearm carrying. Prospective longitudinal studies (n = 22) from 1990 to 2014 were identified by using searches of online databases and citation tracking. Information was extracted from each study by using a standardized protocol. Quality of evidence was independently assessed by 2 reviewers. Aggregate measures of controlled substance use were associated with increased interpersonal violence and suicide, but evidence regarding the relationship between specific substances and violence was mixed. Involvement in illegal drug sales was consistently associated with interpersonal violence. To effectively revise extant federal law and delineate appropriate prohibiting criteria, more research is needed to understand the relationship between controlled substances and firearm violence.

What do nonprofit hospitals reward? An examination of CEO compensation in nonprofit hospitals.

Nonprofit hospital chief executive officer (CEO) compensation has received considerable attention in light of nonprofits' tax-favored status as well as the high costs of hospital care. Past studies have found that hospital financial performance is a significant determinant of CEO pay but nonprofit performance, including quality and charity care, are not. Using post-ACA data, we re-examine whether a variety of hospital performance measures are important determinants of nonprofit hospital CEO compensation. We found mixed evidence with respect to the significance of the association between financial performance and uncompensated care and CEO compensation. Among the other nonprofit performance measures, patient satisfaction was significantly associated with CEO compensation, but other measures were not significant determinants of CEO compensation. Our results suggest nonprofit hospitals balance their financial health against their mission when setting CEO incentives. Additional policy targeting transparency in hospital CEO compensation may be warranted to help policymakers understand the specific factors used by hospital boards to incentivize CEOs.

New Evidence on the Compensation of Chief Executive Officers at Nonprofit U.S. Hospitals.

Chief executive officer (CEO) compensation is highly scrutinized, with nonprofit organizations often receiving additional attention due to their tax-exempt status. Understanding hospital CEO compensation is of increasing importance as health care costs remain high and strong leadership is required to implement new health policies. This study documents CEO compensation at nonprofit hospitals in the United States for 2010 and 2015. We compare hospital CEO compensation with CEO compensation in other institution types, including nonhospital health care. We also explore changes in hospital CEO compensation over time and differences across states. We find CEOs at hospitals earn substantially less than CEOs of publicly traded companies though more than presidents of nonprofit institutions of higher education. Additionally, we find that the relationship between CEO compensation and hospital size was weaker in 2015 than in 2010, and substantial variation in CEO compensation exists across states.

Mental Health Providers' Attitudes About Criminal Justice-Involved Clients With Serious Mental Illness.

OBJECTIVE: Community mental health providers' attitudes toward criminal justice-involved clients with serious mental illness were examined. METHODS: A total of 627 Maryland psychiatric rehabilitation program providers responded to a survey (83% response rate). Measures assessed providers' experience with, positive regard for, and perceptions of similarity, with their clients with serious mental illness. Chi-square tests were used to compare providers' attitudes toward clients with and without criminal justice involvement. RESULTS: Providers reported lower regard for criminal justice-involved clients than for clients without such involvement. Providers were less likely to report having a great deal of respect for clients with (79%) versus without (95%) criminal justice involvement. On all items that measured providers' perceived similarity with their clients, less than 50% of providers rated themselves as similar, regardless of clients' criminal justice status. CONCLUSIONS: Future research should explore how providers' attitudes toward criminal justice-involved clients influence service delivery for this group.

An innovative model to coordinate healthcare and social services for people with serious mental illness: A mixed-methods case study of Maryland's Medicaid health home program.

OBJECTIVE: We conducted a case study examining implementation of Maryland's Medicaid health home program, a unique model for integration of behavioral, somatic, and social services for people with serious mental illness (SMI) in the psychiatric rehabilitation program setting. METHOD: We conducted interviews and surveys with health home leaders (N=72) and front-line staff (N=627) representing 46 of the 48 total health home programs active during the November 2015-December 2016 study period. We measured the structural and service characteristics of the 46 health home programs and leaders' and staff members' perceptions of program implementation. RESULTS: Health home program structure varied across sites: for example, 15% of programs had co-located primary care providers and 76% had onsite supported employment providers. Most leaders and staff viewed the health home program as having strong organizational fit with psychiatric rehabilitation programs' organizational structures and missions, but noted implementation challenges around health IT, population health management, and coordination with external providers. CONCLUSION: Maryland's psychiatric rehabilitation-based health home is a promising model for integration of behavioral, somatic, and social services for people with SMI but may be strengthened by additional policy and implementation supports, including incentives for external providers to engage in care coordination with health home providers.

Trends In News Media Coverage Of Mental Illness In The United States: 1995-2014.

The United States is engaged in ongoing dialogue around mental illness. To assess trends in this national discourse, we studied the volume and content of a random sample of 400 news stories about mental illness from the period 1995-2014. Compared to news stories in the first decade of the study period, those in the second decade were more likely to mention mass shootings by people with mental illnesses. The most frequently mentioned topic across the study period was violence (55 percent overall) divided into categories of interpersonal violence or self-directed (suicide) violence, followed by stories about any type of treatment for mental illness (47 percent). Fewer news stories, only 14 percent, described successful treatment for or recovery from mental illness. The news media's continued emphasis on interpersonal violence is highly disproportionate to actual rates of violence among those with mental illnesses. Research suggests that this focus may exacerbate social stigma and decrease support for public policies that benefit people with mental illnesses.