Having worked in the field of integrating medicine and behavioral health services with an internist/ psychiatrist, actuary, psychiatric nurse, and other medical/behavioral professionals for 18+ years, we are discovering that we are now very popular when it comes to recommending strategies for health systems/ACOs that can improve the quality of care, improve access, reduce costs, and generate appreciable savings, especially among populations with chronic medical and co-morbid behavioral conditions.
Representing between 27% and 35% of all medical admissions, these co-morbid populations incur longer lengths of stay, 41% more 30-day readmissions, higher costs, lower net revenues, and just generally more challenges than their non-comorbid counterparts. As such, it has been very exciting for our practice to be working with provider settings nationally, and seeing how critical it is to gauge these strategies to the local cultures and systems of care, especially when it comes to assessing the financial impact of the strategies once implemented.
When I was at Wharton, Dr. Robert Leopold, a psychiatrist on the faculty of the Wharton Healthcare Management Program, served as a mentor for me. I started my career evaluating behavioral benefits within HMO models and incorporating behavioral health strategies into the relatively primitive State Health Plans. It is therefore very gratifying to see his insights finally starting to take hold within the various operational provisions of the Affordable Care Act and provide very real opportunities to reconnect the head with the rest of the body…what a concept!
Contact Susan at:
Sargent Healthcare Management Advisors, LLC
40 West Evergreen Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19118
[email protected]
215.280.0869