ABSTRACT
Spurred by national trends towards accountability and outcomes management, behavioral healthcare organizations are increasingly focused on efforts to develop and implement outcomes research strategies. CentraLink, in cooperation with the Institute for Behavioral Healthcare, developed a survey designed to reflect and summarize current outcomes efforts in early 1994. This column provides a brief summary of several salient features reported by organizations responding to that survey.
Subject(s)
Mental Health Services/standards , Outcome Assessment, Health Care/statistics & numerical data , Data Collection , Mental Health Services/statistics & numerical data , United StatesABSTRACT
Managed health care has great potential for improving access to health care, improving quality of service, and moderating costs. Increased collaboration among health professions could ensure adequate human resources and expertise to meet service needs under universal health care. Collaboration is the only mechanism that enables the range of scientific and technological developments among the professions to be applied to health care needs. This article briefly illustrates the potential for revisions of law, application of research, professional collaboration, and focused training to maximize the effectiveness of managed care.
Subject(s)
Interprofessional Relations , Managed Care Programs/standards , Patient Care Team/standards , Quality of Health Care , Clinical Competence , Competency-Based Education/standards , Conflict of Interest/legislation & jurisprudence , Health Services Misuse , Licensure , Malpractice , Managed Care Programs/legislation & jurisprudence , Outcome Assessment, Health Care/organization & administration , Patient Advocacy/standards , United States , WorkforceABSTRACT
In a randomized, prospective design with Medicaid enrollees, managed mental health treatment reduced medical services costs and utilization by 23 to 40 percent relative to control groups. For enrollees with chronic medical diagnoses, managed treatment reduced medical costs by 28 to 47 percent, while medical costs for fee-for-service enrollees increased by 17 percent. For enrollees without chronic medical diagnoses, traditional fee-for-service also reduced medical costs by about 20% but used three times as many outpatient visits. Costs of managed treatment were recovered in 6 to 24 months, suggesting that managed mental health treatment should be incorporated in health reform initiatives.
