Behavioral Health Management articles from July 1996

Behavioral Health Management archives from July 1996

Integration comes to behavioral care.(Editorial)
July 1, 1996... "Integration." Webster's dictionary defines integration as the process of forming, coordinating or blending into a functioning or unified whole. Almost every discussion of evolving behavioral health delivery systems uses this word. We see...

The political game's real "losers." (substance abuse program finance)
July 1, 1996... Recent installments of this column have highlighted the partisan debates over major behavioral health policy questions that tend to be hidden by the public static over funding levels and program reauthorizations. Political fingerpointing aside,...

Integration: keys to success, interview with Vincent R. Kaval, MBA, principal, Medimetrix Group Inc.(Cover Story)
July 1, 1996... An integrated delivery system (or IDS) is one of those concepts that almost sounds too good to be true--and, particularly for the behavioral health care sector, too often is. As medical institutions and providers work through the early stages of...

Integrating community services for prevention: Northeast Health Systems may be taking the ultimate moneysaving measure.(Cover Story)
July 1, 1996... While most health care managers theoretically agree that health care should now focus upon the integration of services, and the continuum of care that fosters subscriber wellness, there is little consensus on what the new delivery models should...

Provider empathy for a quality network: Merit Behavioral Care's new focus on a key to patient satisfaction.(Cover Story)
July 1, 1996... Patient satisfaction surveys have long been a standard method of attempting to evaluate health care delivery to patients. While Merit Behavioral Care (MBC), one of the nation's largest managed behavioral health care organizations, has always...

Lessons from the front line: providers and MCOs reinvent their relationships every day. (two case histories)(Cover Story)
July 1, 1996... How can behavioral health care providers and managed care organizations work better together? We all share the belief that they should work well together, and are quite familiar with many reasons that they don't (and I'll review these later on)....

Why integrate? A behavioral care perspective: do it right, and everyone wins.(Cover Story)
July 1, 1996... "Win-win situation" has become one of the business catch phrases of the 1990s. It refers to a transaction that has little, if any, downside for all parties. In today's managed behavioral care world, where cost effectiveness and patient needs...

Next up for JCAHO: behavioral network accreditation. (Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations)(Cover Story)
July 1, 1996... Although an accreditor's "seal of approval" has become an all-important key to provider survival and growth in the tumultuous managed care marketplace, the behavioral field has lagged behind others in gaining access to it. That is, until this...

Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound: toward integrated care, a pioneering provider's first steps in integrating medical and behavioral health services.
July 1, 1996... Providing behavioral health services has always been a challenge for health maintenance organizations. Initially, they provided little or no behavioral health benefits, but as pressure grew from customers and providers, they began to add such...

FHC Options: its road to the National Leadership Award, a managed behavioral care company discloses how it achieved important recognition.
July 1, 1996... This year's presentation of the 1996 Eli Lilly & Co.--NMHCC National Leadership Award to FHC Options, Inc. (OPTIONS) resulted from this company's efforts to develop innovative new products, streamline administrative services and seek out...

Lessons from a small business network: EAP services can be a leading network "product," but you need to know your market. (employee assistance programs)
July 1, 1996... For three years, the innovative Corporation Against Drug Abuse (CADA) operated a project designed to test the assumption that the consortium model is the best way to provide employee assistance (EA) and ancillary services to small employers. CADA...

Evaluating software for EAPs: for a workable MIS, here are the basic elements to look for. (employee assistance programs)
July 1, 1996... Before making decisions about developing, buying or adapting a software package, it is important to review the features or capabilities one desires from it. Though there will likely be customized needs, there are several attributes by which all...

The office as "therapy assistant": can the provider's office design in itself be therapeutic? MCC Behavioral Care is exploring the answers.
July 1, 1996... Over the years the world of medical facility design has seen development of literature linking environmental factors to patient health and functioning. Facility lighting, sound systems, space layout, art and interior design--all have been found...

Integration's "downsizing" downside.
July 1, 1996... A couple months ago I attended a funeral. There were no caskets or candles. It was held in a corporate board room after a health care merger/acquisition. The larger of the two companies hired a consulting firm to decide whose position(s) would be...