By Serene Olin and Lauren Niles, Illustration: Matt Chinworth, California Health Care Foundation, October 21, 2021
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the American public developed a deeper appreciation for behavioral health care, the umbrella term for mental health and substance use treatment. While demand for it is soaring, the US health care system is still falling far short. Despite significant spending, people with behavioral health conditions still suffer greatly. They experience more illness, poorer health outcomes, and a shorter life expectancy than the general population — often from preventable physical health conditions. State and federal governments are providing additional funds to improve behavioral health care, but measuring the quality and coordination of these services, which is needed to improve both access to care and outcomes, has always been an obstacle.
Health systems will be able to deliver whole-person care that addresses the full spectrum of a person’s health care needs only if the quality of behavioral health care is raised. The fragmented and inequitable state of behavioral health care calls for a quality measurement framework that can be used to guide and hold all types of health care organizations jointly accountable for improving outcomes for people with behavioral health needs. To guide development of this framework, CHCF commissioned the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to evaluate the current behavioral health quality measurement landscape and to share insights about the needs and challenges facing behavioral health care organizations across the health care system.
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