In their new study, Brianna M. Lombardi, Catherine Greeno, and Lisa de Saxe Zerden shed light on why federally qualified health centers aren’t using behavioral health codes when they bill insurance.
Check out this new paper by Brianna M. Lombardi, Catherine Greeno, and Lisa de Saxe Zerden, ‘Examining the use of psychiatric collaborative care and behavioral health integration codes at federally qualified health centers: A mixed-methods study.’ Financing services is critical for the successful implementation of integrative care models. In their research, the authors find that a lack of billing clarity and awareness at federally qualified health centers is hindering the adoption of Psychiatric Collaborative Care Models. These findings suggest that education about existing reimbursement mechanisms will enhance the use of evidence based integrated behavioral health care models.
Key Insights:
- Financing structures like CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) codes for the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) and behavioral health integration may not be widely understood due to administrative complexity, nor may the current systems be sufficient to incentivize their use.
- FQHCs need financial, logistical, and technical assistance to jump-start the use of CMS codes for IBH, as well as needing payment reform to support use of these codes.