Report Presents Opportunities for Expanding Digital Access to Behavioral Health

With the United States immersed in a behavioral health crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 2 years, the American Medical Association (AMA) and Manatt Health have collaborated on a report that presents a series of ways in which providers, policymakers, and health insurers can expand access to treatment digitally through the integration of behavioral and physical care.

A working group of stakeholders representing physician practices and health systems, large employers, health plans, and patient advocates met twice during the fall of 2021 to develop the report with 3 goals in mind:

• Define opportunities and limitations to incorporating technology to advance behavioral health integration (BHI)
• Define practical solutions for stakeholders to pursue
• Demonstrate how to use AMA’s Return on Health Framework for measuring the value of virtual care

“Appropriately applied, the incorporation of technology—including digital tools for screening and intake, clinical decision support, and telehealth care delivery—can support current BHI models by helping engage more people in behavioral health treatment and possibly encouraging broader adoption by providers,” the report’s authors wrote.

The full report, titled “Accelerating and Enhancing Behavioral Health Integration Through Digitally Enabled Care: Opportunities and Challenges,” is available for download on the AMA website.

The authors clarified that tech-based solutions can augment—but not replace—in-person patient-provider interactions, and that disparities in access to technology could be an impediment to equitable adoption of digitally enabled behavioral healthcare integration.

The report notes several factors are currently limiting widespread adoption of BHI:

• A national shortage of both behavioral health providers and primary care specialists, with one estimate projecting that by 2025, the US will have a shortage of 250,520 full-time equivalent behavioral health providers
• Inadequate payment to providers for coverage of costs associated with implementing and delivering BHI
• Siloed nature and inherent differences between behavioral health and non-behavioral health providers
• Federal and state regulations limiting the sharing of patient information among care team members

Among the solutions offered in the report, AMA and Manatt recommend that private and publicly traded behavioral health companies evolve current and develop new businesses to support BHI, address patient and physician needs, complement in-person care, support comprehensive care deliver, and develop solutions for improved communication between patients and providers. The report also recommends generating “robust clinical and economic evidence for digitally enabled BHI by working with stakeholders to develop national standards for BHI technologies,” as well as partnering with other practices to test solutions.

The report provides similar series of recommendations for physician practices and health systems, as well as health plans and coverage programs, federal and state policymakers, and employers, with an emphasis on demonstrating the value generated by digital tools for providers, patients, and society at large.

References

AMA, Manatt Health present solutions for digital access to behavioral health. News release. American Medical Association. February 21, 2022. Accessed February 23, 2022.

Accelerating and enhancing behavioral health integration through digitally enabled care: opportunities and challenges. Published February 21, 2022. Accessed February 23, 2022.