SAMHSA: Financing Measurement-Based Care in Community Behavioral Health Settings

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA’s) Center for Financing Reform and Innovation (CFRI) is releasing a report and hosting a webinar for Financing Measurement-Based Care in Community Behavioral Health Settings. This report and webinar use analyses based on discussions with payers, policy makers, financing experts, and providers and an environmental scan to explore Measurement-Based Care (MBC) reimbursement options and to identify challenges and potential solutions for increasing use of MBC across diverse community behavioral health care settings. The webinar will feature a panel discussion and Q&A session with speakers from SAMHSA and national experts in the behavioral health field.

MBC for behavioral health (BH) care, encompassing mental health and substance use disorder treatment services, is a clinical process that uses standardized, valid, repeated measurements to track a client’s progress over time and inform treatment. MBC fosters shared client-provider treatment planning and treatment decision-making processes. Despite the benefits of MBC, including improved client outcomes and quality of care, adoption has been slow. One significant challenge to the broader adoption of MBC for BH care is financing.

Resulting from discussions with payers, policy makers, BH financing experts, and providers, the report explores MBC reimbursement options and identifies potential financing solutions for increasing use of MBC across diverse community BH care settings. An environmental scan of published literature and reports was conducted in parallel.