Behavioral health care workers continue to see a rise in mental health concerns as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to provoke Americans' levels of psychological and emotional distress. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has identified the mission-critical importance of integrating behavioral health with primary care, widely understood as an effective strategy for improving the outcomes of millions of Americans experiencing mental or behavioral health issues.
The market-leading CrossTx closed-loop referral management and care coordination platform now has seamless, turnkey accessible BHI services ensuring that all primary care clinics, including federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, and other health system clinics, can better care for their patients.
Ensuring that clinics can connect eligible Medicare and Medicaid patients with behavioral health services, CrossTx supports Medicare's ongoing payment reform efforts, ensuring clients are reimbursed for services offered to patients.
Faith Jones, a long-time CMS program and compliance subject matter expert, shared recently that "CMS launched the Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) program to incentivize providers to address this serious health concern as coordinating behavioral health care within primary care practices is an effective strategy for improving outcomes for adults with mental or behavioral health conditions."
A colleague with HealthTechS3 and CrossTx partner, Jones continued, "Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) remuneration for behavioral health coordination is accessible for primary care practices, certain specialty providers, Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Clinics. Adding BHI to existing chronic care management services is the logical next step to ensure both physical and mental health conditions are managed."
In fact, CrossTx announces that the new release streamlines compliance and reimbursement associated with BHI care coordination, including:
- BHI program introduction is initiated by the primary care provider, with care coordination activities performed by a care team member.
- Psychiatric medical provider does NOT need to be a staff member for BHI reimbursement, a referral can be appropriate.
- Initial assessment and ongoing systematic administration of applicable clinically validated rating scale(s).
- Care planning by the primary care team jointly with the beneficiary, with care plan revision for patients whose condition is not improving.
- Facilitation and coordination of behavioral health treatment.
- Continuous relationship with a care coordinator.
- Further remuneration for additional intervals of time spent, as well as consultation with psychiatric medical providers.
Chad Nybo, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bozeman, Montana-based company, launched CrossTx a decade ago to improve efficiencies and patient care.
"We are excited to help our current and new customers not only improve healthcare outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries but also boost revenues to the clinic. We are excited about the ease of access to compelling capabilities in the easy-to-use cloud-based, secure service including chart reviews, scheduling, administering behavioral health screening, phone calls, coordination with community resources, and education. The CrossTx BHI service ensures compliance with federal rules while ensuring the seamless integration with current primary care workflows and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to increase practice revenues and improve health outcomes for patients."
Chad Nybo, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CrossTx
The robust, holistic solution is both a software and a service completely covering:
- All education and training via subject matter expert for setting up and ongoing success.
- All compliance elements are met and confirmed through the training and software solution.
- Auditable trail ensuring correct billing each month including distinctions between different coding options available for specific months, elevated patient diagnoses, additional time spent, etc.
Consider integrating behavioral health care with primary care to improve outcomes for those struggling with mental or behavioral health conditions. Capitalize on turnkey compliance with the CMS BHI program.
About CrossTx
CrossTx, a leading cloud-based health and human services network technology platform, based in Bozeman, Montana, supports care coordination, patient discharge planning, referral management, and care management for value-based programs and initiatives. The CrossTx platform powers rural health clinics and critical access hospitals, federally qualified health centers (FQHC) and health systems' journey to adopting U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) value-based care delivery models such as Chronic Care Management, Transitional care management (TCM), Psychiatric Collaborative Care Management (CoCM), Remote Physiological Management (RPM) and now turnkey Behavioral health Integration (BHI) services.