In the last decade, there has been increasing awareness of the role behavioral health plays in healthcare outcomes and cost of care—especially in the public sector. Starting with Medicaid expansion and the high rates of behavioral health conditions in the expansion population to evidence of the impact of behavioral health on physical chronic disease and medical spending, behavioral health is an area of focus for improving the quality of care and reducing cost.
181 Results found.
Webinar Replay: When Behavioral Health Leaders Are Also Behavioral Health Family Caregivers
This webinar was held on May 13, 2021.
This was the second webinar in the series “Exploring the Landscape of Behavioral Healthcare,” covering the growing impact of behavioral healthcare on clinical outcomes and cost.
Behavioral health professionals who have cared for their own family members have firsthand knowledge of the effects of depression, schizophrenia, and substance use disorder on individuals and families. While the experience informs their work in many positive ways, it can also make them susceptible to strong emotional reactions that may cloud their judgment. During this webinar, HMA clinical psychologist, consultant, and family caregiving expert Barry Jacobs explored strategies that behavioral health professionals can employ to manage their emotions in professional situations, ensuring the most effective and constructive interactions with family members and treatment teams as well as the best possible outcomes for patients.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the burgeoning phenomenon of family caregiving in America.
- Find out how behavioral health professionals are impacted by their own personal family caregiving experiences in both positive and potentially negative ways, including a look at the most recent research on the subject.
- Learn three effective strategies behavioral health professionals can employ to manage their own emotional reactions to interactions with clients and staff members.
Speaker
Barry Jacobs, Psy.D., Principal, Philadelphia
Webinar Replay: Overcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Behavioral Health Staff and Patients
This webinar was held on April 28, 2021.
This is the first webinar in the series “Exploring the Landscape of Behavioral Healthcare,” a series on the growing impact of behavioral healthcare on clinical outcomes and cost.
Behavioral health providers continue to struggle to increase COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among staff and patients, especially in communities of color. During this webinar, HMA behavioral health experts discussed strategies for increasing vaccine acceptance among behavioral health providers and clients. Speakers also addressed how disparities in COVID-19 infection rates impact behavioral healthcare.
Speakers
Laquisha Grant, MPA, Senior Consultant
Deb Peartree, RN, MS, Senior Consultant
Youth needs assessment published
With a focus on the needs of young people in detention and correctional facilities, a team of Health Management Associates (HMA) colleagues completed an in-depth assessment designed to guide future planning and decision making around mental health services for youth.
HMA enters strategic partnership with The College for Behavioral Health Leadership
HMA recently entered into a strategic partnership with The College for Behavioral Health Leadership (CBHL) for the 2021 calendar year.
New report supports state Medicaid programs in advancing health justice
Rates of illness and death due to the COVID-19 pandemic have disproportionally impacted Americans who are Black, African American, Latinx, Native American, Asian, and other people of color as well as people with disabilities and those subsisting on poverty-level income. In response to this, AcademyHealth, in partnership with the Disability Policy Consortium (DPC), a Massachusetts-based cross-disability advocacy and action research organization, released a new report: Advancing Health Justice Using Medicaid Data: Key Lessons from Minnesota for the Nation. This report provides information on the importance of investing in data analysis to advance health justice in Medicaid populations. It further highlights the importance of partnering with communities most impacted by injustices that cause inequities in health outcomes.
CMS Releases New Tools
Two new tools have been released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to help states and territories plan to transition back to regular operations after the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends.
Drivers and barriers to adopting flexible Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits
This week’s In Focus highlights a recent HMA publication examining the drivers and barriers to Medicare Advantage plan adoption of newly available supplemental benefits intended to address unmet health and social needs. Unlike Traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans, which provide coverage for 40 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries, may offer enrollees supplemental benefits which are not covered by the Medicare program. Until recently, the Medicare program has required that supplemental benefits be limited to those that are medical in nature. However, in recent years, Congress and CMS —through four different legislative and regulatory authorities — granted new flexibilities for Medicare Advantage plans to offer non-medical benefits that address social needs. Medicare Advantage plans may also now tailor supplemental benefits and make them available only to certain subpopulations based on chronic disease or health status.
States, Medicaid, and Economic Hard Times
Health Management Associates (HMA) and Wakely Consulting Group, Inc., collaborated to analyze, compile, and model data on Medicaid enrollment growth during the COVID-19 pandemic and develop projections under various recovery scenarios as well as analyze the potential impact of key variables on state Medicaid expenditures.
The analysis examined two key questions, how much strain will state Medicaid budgets be under over the next few years and what types of state characteristics and what types of policy options will allow states the ability address budgetary challenges.
HMA colleagues Eric Hammelman, Stephen Palmer, Matt Powers, and Kathy Gifford contributed to the report.
North Carolina releases RFA for behavioral health, IDD tailored plans
This week, our In Focus section reviews the statewide North Carolina request for applications (RFA) for Behavioral Health and Intellectual/Developmental Disability (BH IDD) Tailored Plans released by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on November 13, 2020. BH IDD Tailored Plans are part of the statewide effort to transition to Medicaid managed care and are one of the four types of integrated Medicaid managed care plans the state will contract with to serve Medicaid and NC Health Choice beneficiaries. The other three are Standard Plans, the Statewide Specialized Foster Care Plan, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Option.
HMA colleagues author case studies on two-generation approach to addressing inequities in D.C. and Maryland
Focused on addressing inequities and building more sustainable and vital futures for low-income families in Washington, D.C., and the state of Maryland, colleagues from Health Management Associates (HMA) authored two case studies under the auspices of Ascend at the Aspen Institute, a hub for breakthrough ideas and collaborations that move children and their parents toward educational success and economic security.
A short-term solution to ACA uncertainty amid ongoing pandemic
In this week’s In Focus section, Health Management Associates (HMA) Managing Director MMS Matt Powers, Senior Consultant Kaitlyn Feiock, and Regional Vice President Kathleen Nolan look at the future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). On November 10, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) heard oral arguments for California v. Texas, challenging the constitutionality and severability of the ACA. This challenge became possible after the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which zeroed out the individual mandate penalty for not purchasing health insurance. While most experts agree that an entire invalidation of the ACA is the least likely outcome based on the oral arguments, some uncertainty remains and more than $100 billion federal funds are at risk. The ACA standardized insurance rules offset premium costs for many individual market consumers and provided authority and funding for Medicaid Expansions in the overwhelming majority of states. The ACA also included other provisions that may be at risk but are not the subject of this note, such as the creation of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office, as well as demonstration authority that has led to the creation of numerous coverage models. As states, Congress, and the federal executive branch face the possibility that the ACA may not survive in its present form, what mitigation strategies are available at the state and federal levels to stabilize uncertainties and protect against abrupt coverage changes?