By Catherine Teare, California Health Care Foundation, February 28, 2020
Hundreds of providers, administrators, government officials, consumers, and advocates attended a CHCF briefing last week to learn how Medicaid programs can integrate behavioral health services — mental health care and treatment of substance use disorder — and physical health care.
The February 18 event in Sacramento shared information about how Medicaid programs outside California approach the integration of physical and behavioral health, as well as what county-plan partnerships in California are working on. Many people think of integration as something that happens mainly at the clinical level, such as teaming physical care and behavioral care providers in the same location. But unless integration also occurs on the financial, operational, and administrative levels, it will be much harder to successfully provide integrated care.
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