47H - The Power of Partnership in Improving Behavioral Health Access

Tuesday, March 21

10:45–11:45 a.m.

America is in a behavioral health crisis. Long before the pandemic, poor reimbursement and budget cuts led to psychiatric hospital closures and a steady contraction of behavioral health beds at acute care facilities. Now, there’s historic spike in behavioral health problems and the healthcare system has less capacity than ever. Behavioral health patients are likely to suffer co-occurring physical health issues that often go untreated and result in costly medical interventions. The annual costs for people with behavioral health conditions are about 3.5 times higher than costs for people without those conditions, placing a great burden on the already-taxed Medicaid and Medicare systems.

Across the country, joint ventures between acute care hospitals and behavioral health providers are gaining traction either in the development of new stand-alone facilities or dedicated hospital units. Driven by need, top-tier health systems are forming new, collaborative partnerships. Oceans Healthcare CEO Stuart Archer will discuss how behavioral health/acute care strategic partnerships can increase inpatient bed capacity, decrease emergency department utilization, expand access to inpatient and outpatient behavioral health and substance use disorder services, and provide essential mental health services that exceed national quality metrics. He will discuss how their system partner achieved a structure that, through the partnership, increased capacity and balanced the economics of caring for behavioral health patients, offsetting losses and creating a stable program that fulfills its mission.

Learning Objectives

• How hospitals can identify and partner with like-minded organizations to increase access to behavioral health services in a financially sustainable way.
• An understanding of how to retain control and oversight of behavioral health programs while outsourcing operations and creating a unified culture.