Medicare Payment for Behavioral Health Integration

Four new codes have been created for the 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to allow payment to health care providers for furnishing services that integrate behavioral health care with primary care — an effective strategy for improving patient outcomes. Integrating behavioral health care with prim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New England journal of medicine Vol. 376; no. 5; pp. 405 - 407
Main Authors Press, Matthew J, Howe, Ryan, Schoenbaum, Michael, Cavanaugh, Sean, Marshall, Ann, Baldwin, Lindsey, Conway, Patrick H
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Massachusetts Medical Society 02.02.2017
Subjects
Codes
Fee Schedules - classification
Health Behavior
Humans
Medical referrals
Medicare
Medicare - economics
Mental Disorders - classification
Mental Disorders - therapy
Mental health care
Patients
Physicians
Primary care
Primary Health Care - classification
Primary Health Care - economics
Reimbursement
Reimbursement Mechanisms
United States
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Summary:Four new codes have been created for the 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to allow payment to health care providers for furnishing services that integrate behavioral health care with primary care — an effective strategy for improving patient outcomes. Integrating behavioral health care with primary care is now widely considered an effective strategy for improving outcomes for the many millions of Americans with mental or behavioral health conditions. Uptake of behavioral health integration (BHI) has remained limited, however, largely because BHI has not been paid for separately, which has left primary care clinicians without a clear business model for incorporating these services into their practice. 1 But on January 1, 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin paying clinicians separately for the BHI services they provide to Medicare beneficiaries. Four new codes were created for the . . .
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ISSN:0028-4793
1533-4406
DOI:10.1056/NEJMp1614134