Managed Behavioral Health and Academic Group Practices

Case Studies in Collaboration

Abstract

The authors describe a collaborative initiative between U.S. Behavioral Health (USBH) and group practices in academic departments of psychiatry. The article begins with an overview of the growth of managed behavioral health care and the impetus for collaboration with academic psychiatry departments. USBH sees such departments as desirable partners because of their rigorous scientific standards and emphasis on quality of care as well as their ties with and knowledge of local providers. The academic departments involved in the partnerships are interested in increasing their patient base and establishing innovative methods of delivering care, given reductions in traditional sources of funding and increasing pressures from managed care. The main body of the article deals with the actual details of setting up collaborative initiatives with group practices at Yale Psychiatry and the Cambridge Hospital Department of Psychiatry affiliated with Harvard Medical School. The author describes some of the problems those setting up such initiatives are likely to encounter, including how to select group practice members, how to integrate the requirements of USBH with the practice habits of the group members, how to handle disputes over treatment decisions, how to handle competition for patients, and how to cover administrative costs while amply reimbursing providers. The article concludes with a discussion of the advantages of such arrangements for both managed care organizations and academic departments of psychiatry.