Like you, I built my career in healthcare.

For years, I played a critical role in transforming the U.S. subsidiary of a leading global medical device company into a significant growth driver. I worked hard, was committed to its mission (and still am), delivered exceptional results, and enjoyed life-changing personal and professional experiences I may not have gained anywhere else.

But when burnout, family and relationship losses, and re-experiencing long-forgotten childhood trauma hit me all at once, I ended up learning the hard way that our healthcare system had not integrated behavioral health into primary and specialty care settings. No one asked questions about my mental health, or to fill out a screening form, nothing. It’s hard to know how I would’ve responded, but I’m pretty sure my health wouldn’t have gotten worse.

The high costs that we all experience with insurance, medications, and services are one thing. What’s most frustrating to me, though, is that more health systems and medical groups haven’t truly integrated high-quality behavioral health into their care models, especially primary care.

There’s a clear human and clinical need for integrating behavioral health into primary care. Here’s why: up to 70% all primary care visits involve mental health concerns and most Americans prefer their PCPs to address them. Unfortunately, this demand is overwhelming primary care systems, contributing to increased physician burnout and poorer health outcomes.

But imagine a primary care clinic that integrates behavioral health into its design and workflows. A trained master’s level behavioral health care manager delivers therapeutic interventions, is available for warm handoffs, steps in on crisis situations, supports chronic condition care plans, and more. They work at the clinic, are a member of the care team, and their services are covered by medical insurance – no separate networks, contracting, or credentialing.

This is Collaborative Care, and delivering this nationwide is why Erik Osland and I founded evolvedMD over eight years ago. For us, creating a behavioral health system that is truly integrated, team-based, in-person focused, and outcomes-driven isn’t just a good idea; it’s the gold standard for delivering healthcare.

evolvedMD currently supports more than 2,000 primary care providers with our in-person and on-site driven approach to Collaborative Care. And a recent evaluation of our program by a leading actuarial firm highlighted our superior outcomes compared to other behavioral health service providers.

Notably, our patients’ behavioral health challenges are more acute and medically more complex, but are less likely to require hospital utilization and outpatient psychiatric services. They’re also less likely to change their PCP. And their total healthcare costs – inpatient, ED, outpatient, pharmaceutical, DME, and more – are 15% lower than traditional behavioral health providers. In a world in which healthcare insurers see 30% prevalence rates for behavioral health disorders, these savings are significant, and they add up fast.

The costs of not effectively integrating behavioral health into medical are high. Undertreated mental illnesses cost more than $290 billion annually, and they also result in 3-5 times higher costs for co-morbid chronic conditions. Not only is inaction expensive, but it can also result in unnecessary deaths. In fact, about a third of individuals who die by suicide saw a primary care provider in the month before their death. But with the right professionals, resources, and workflows in place, mental health crises like suicide are preventable.

The ROI for Collaborative Care, however, has never been more clear. The foundational IMPACT study led by the University of Washington’s AIMS Center showed a 6x return on the cost of Collaborative Care. Kaiser Permanente reported that their program has generated 13% in total cost of care savings. And evolvedMD’s program has been shown to generate more than 15% in total cost of care savings. If you’d like to see the data on file, please see below for my email. I’d be happy to talk through our findings.

The hard data shows that Collaborative Care is operationally viable, clinically proven, desired by providers and patients, and financially efficacious – full stop. How many other opportunities exist in healthcare to lower total costs by 15% in an episode of care category that has 30% prevalence? The time is now for all the key players in our industry to meaningfully commit to the adoption and further innovation of Collaborative Care, and I couldn’t be prouder to know that evolvedMD is leading the way.

If you want to learn more about evolvedMD and how we can positively impact your medical group’s providers, staff, and patients, please reach out to steve.biljan@evolvedmd.com.

The post My Descent into Crisis –And What it Showed Me About How We Must Change Care appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.