As behavioral health demand continues to rise, the industry sees adding new service lines and embracing value-based care as critical opportunities for growth, according to new data from Behavioral Health Business.
According to BHB’s 2022 Industry Outlook report, which surveyed 84 provider executives in the space, more than a third of respondents said that expanding service offerings was the greatest opportunity for behavioral health providers in 2022.
Respondents ranked value-based care as behavioral health’s second biggest opportunity in 2022. The response echoes the trend line taking hold throughout behavioral health, as more providers are moving away from traditional fee-for-service models or are looking to do so.
“Fee-for-service rates often don’t scale appropriately, depending on the patient complexity,” Katherine Hobbs Knutson, the SVP of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) and CEO of Optum Behavioral Care, commented on last April during a webinar. “So oftentimes, payers are paying the same amount for treatment of ADHD as a medication visit for schizophrenia, and the work involved in those two is quite different.”
Throughout behavioral health, a number of providers such as Alabama-based WellStone and managed service organizations like New Directions Behavioral Health have been implementing data platforms to track outcomes of patient services. The ramp-up comes as the industry, overall, had been slow in past years to integrate electronic health record technology across its networks to track and assess patient care.
“[Value-based care] puts the onus on the provider to raise their standard of care,” Caron Treatment Centers CEO Brad Sorte told BHB last month. “But the long-term effect of raising the standard of care will eventually be better outcomes for the patient, lower costs for the payer, and hopefully, better reimbursement.”
In terms of technology adoption, the industry sees use of telehealth as something that will remain strong, with 55% saying it will increase and and 40% expecting it to remain the same in 2022.
Telehealth visits for Medicare beneficiaries have grown by over 3,000% during the pandemic. Additionally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has been vocal in supporting more telebehavioral health access for its members.
To view a copy of the full report, see here and stay tuned for more reporting from BHB as we dive into the details.
Companies featured in this article:
Caron Treatment Centers, New Directions Behavioral Health, Optum Behavioral Care, UnitedHealth Group, WellStone
