Medicare To Reimburse For Integrated Behavioral Health Services In 2017

Starting in January 2017, Medicare will start reimbursing for behavioral health services integrated into primary care settings via the Medicare psychiatric collaborative care model (CoCM) and other models. The psychiatric CoCM allows for inter-professional consultation between primary care physicians, a psychiatric consultant, and a case manager.

The evidence base for the psychiatric CoCM was established by randomized controlled trials as an effective approach to caring for beneficiaries with behavioral health conditions. The psychiatric CoCM is one of many models for collaborative behavioral health integration (BHI) that integrates behavioral health services principally with primary care, but that may also integrate . . .