Today we’re diving into the world of behavioral health, the structural problems this industry faces, and how risk-bearing organizations today are struggling to grapple with rising utilization and total cost of care challenges involving ‘hidden’ behavioral health needs in their populations.
So I’m here to break down how a company like NeuroFlow solves those problems by providing health plans and integrated health systems an all-in-one platform with the visibility these organizations sorely need to drive real, actionable results for members and get a better handle on total cost of care.
It’s a good one! Let’s get after it.
This essay is a sponsored post in partnership with NeuroFlow. I write these posts for companies with products or missions I believe can provide value-adds for Hospitalogy subscribers, many of whom work with/for integrated health systems, health plans, and risk-bearing organizations that want to learn more about facilitating a better behavioral health strategy.
If you’re interested in a sponsored deep dive, please reach out to [email protected]!
TL;DR
- Behavioral health remains fragmented, having long been treated as separate from physical health.
- We’re finally seeing a convergence between physical and mental health.
- Risk-bearing organizations (payors, health systems, etc.) are blind to the level of behavioral health risks present within their populations. Point solutions aren’t getting the job done.
- NeuroFlow is an all-in-one behavioral health platform that provides complete, longitudinal, real-time insights into patient or member populations.
- Better visibility into what’s actually going on leads to actionable insights to drive real results: quicker identification of high-risk members, better management of total cost of care, and having a confident answer to the question, “are my patients or members getting better?”
Schedule a meeting with the fantastic NeuroFlow team here today.
The Behavioral Health Fragmentation Problem
The behavioral health industry, with its incumbent structural limitations, was never intended to service so many patients with such a broad range of conditions and acuities. In the past, behavioral health was carved out and treated as separate from physical health, and the emphasis was placed on physical health.
As a result, when demand for behavioral health skyrocketed in recent years, costs and utilization spiraled out of control. Many organizations found themselves struggling to get their arms around a sustainable, scalable solution for identifying and managing behavioral health needs in their populations.
With these structural industry headwinds in mind, the huge problem facing behavioral health today is also a simple one to understand: Most healthcare organizations have a big behavioral health blind spot – organizations responsible for managing risk and total cost of care often have unsupported behavioral health needs hiding in their populations, and see those member needs show up in costly downstream places like the ED or inpatient stays.
- Over half (56%) of adults with a mental illness receive no treatment.
- Over 27 million individuals experiencing a mental illness are going untreated.
The sea of point solutions and virtual care options that developed during and post-pandemic also adds to the behavioral health fragmentation problem. These solutions can be helpful in opening up new options for behavioral healthcare, but if these products lack the integration to be a part of the longitudinal patient record, and if payors and health systems have no visibility or measurements into whether those solutions are (1) effective and (2) being used by the patients and members who need them most, they ultimately fall short.
With more data than ever and a heightened focus on population health, payors and provider organizations are shifting their thinking from service line optimization into enterprise-wide strategies. Stated differently, all stakeholders are trying to figure out the answer to the following: “how do we feed our mother ship and ensure it stays fed into the future?”
To that end, it’s time for integrated health systems and payors to start thinking much more holistically across their enterprise when it comes to their populations, and total cost of care.
The behavioral health industry is converging toward whole-person health, and risk-bearing organizations that aren’t making the investment to prepare for that inevitable future will…inevitably…fall behind. To the detriment of the patients and clinicians they serve, but also their bottom lines.
But here’s the good news. You don’t have to go at a big hairy behavioral health problem alone, and players in the space are finding ways to leverage technology and AI to drive better outcomes at scale, to get patients the care they need, and the right interventions at the right time.
Healthcare organizations cannot manage the quality and outcome of someone’s care, and the cost of that care, without managing behavioral health through effective identification, triage, and ongoing measurement. And doing that at scale with consistency and efficiency is impossible without technology. The answer to these issues lies with better actionable data, and a holistic, longitudinal platform unlocking broad visibility for your organization.
The tectonic plates of behavioral health are shifting, and NeuroFlow is one such company working toward a unified Pangaea – uniting the continents of behavioral and physical health, if you will (alright…I may have taken that metaphor too far – indulge me, I write about healthcare).
There’s a simple, yet profound question you want your organization to be able to answer:
Are patients and members getting better? And, secondary to this question, how did you know they actually got better?
Here’s how NeuroFlow helps you answer that question.
How NeuroFlow is Converging Behavioral and Physical Health for Risk-Bearing Organizations
NeuroFlow helps health plans and integrated health systems identify undiagnosed or undertreated behavioral health conditions in their populations. They work with your organization to develop actionable insights enabling healthcare organizations to assess behavioral health risks, improve outcomes, and achieve financial targets.
Through analysis of multiple data sources—including claims, prescriptions, EHR records, clinical assessments, and patient-reported information—NeuroFlow helps organizations:
- Identify and engage high-risk populations, particularly those with behavioral health comorbidities, to connect them with appropriate care;
- Create data-driven programs that deliver improved outcomes; and
- Lower costs and reduce utilization through continuous program monitoring and care gap closure
NeuroFlow’s platform closes the loop between behavioral and physical health data – without disrupting the daily realities of care teams. So how does NeuroFlow do it? I’ll highlight some examples below that moved the needle for partners like Intermountain Health, Magellan Healthcare, and Novant:
- Identify Hidden Risk: NeuroFlow uses claims, clinical and encounter data, EHR information, and patient-reported assessments to uncover behavioral health conditions that might otherwise remain undiagnosed or underdiagnosed. NeuroFlow’s platform allows organizations to drill down into a much more granular level of detail, identifying often-missed patients in need thanks to sophisticated data models and deep BH expertise. At Prudential, NeuroFlow identified 19% of disability claimants who had previously unidentified behavioral health needs.
- Triage and Navigate: By automatically sorting and prioritizing individuals according to acuity, NeuroFlow ensures that high-risk patients get escalated faster, while those with lower risk can still receive relevant self-help resources and ongoing monitoring. At The Villages Health, a fully at-risk health system, NeuroFlow helped identify patients with behavioral health needs that would be a fit for The Villages’ existing integrated care program. Navigating patients to this program drives significant cost savings, as much as 39%, according to The Villages Health research. It’s all about empowering the behavioral health clinicians to intervene with the right level of service at the right time.
- Measure Outcomes Continuously: Because the platform pulls data in real-time, administrators, care managers, and providers can see exactly what’s working and where more support is needed. More visibility leads to understanding outcomes and quality reporting – and actually being able to answer the all-important question, “are my patients getting better?” Aurora Mental Health & Recovery was able to drive 56% faster time to remission using NeuroFlow’s measurement-based care solution, leading to better outcomes, lower utilization, and 28% PMPM cost savings.
- Seamless Integration: Rather than creating another standalone “portal,” NeuroFlow connects to existing workflows and platforms. It’s designed to reduce burdens on care teams, not add to them, aligning with the idea that “the best tech is integrated to the point where you can’t tell it’s there.”
Once all this data from disparate systems is connected, it’s simpler for teams to spot patterns and gaps in care. Let’s say you’re a health plan: now you have the insights you need to incentivize providers (through pay-for-performance or similar programs) to take action that leads to better results at lower costs. Or if you’re a health system navigating alternative payment models, these insights shine a light on where to focus improvements so you can hit your performance goals—and ultimately, help more people get the care they need.
One question I always ask my sponsors for these deep dives is…”who do you view as competition? How are you different? What are you fighting against?” And NeuroFlow’s team gave a pretty unique answer. They said they’re not fighting against other players that might be perceived as competition. Rather, NeuroFlow is focused on fighting the current behavioral health status quo. For decades, behavioral health and physical health have been managed separately, and in the digital age, healthcare has been disintermediated by narrowly-focused point-solutions. Moving people away from these ingrained approaches is their biggest perceived challenge.
Get in Touch with the NeuroFlow Team to Understand your Behavioral Health Strategy & Exposure
If you’re ready to make real progress on behavioral health – whether it’s improving outcomes, controlling costs, or FINALLY breaking down those stubborn silos – schedule a meeting with NeuroFlow. They’ll show you how their platform can surface hidden BH risk, tackle care gaps, and lower total cost of care, all without overwhelming your existing workflows.
(Plus, it’ll make me look good).
Behavioral health isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. It’s become a linchpin in population health strategies. The good news: solutions like NeuroFlow are making it easier than ever to make real, measurable strides in integrated care. Oh, and keep an eye out for more from the NeuroFlow team – they’ll be announcing an exciting data analytics solution soon that tackles the exact challenges we just covered.
Let’s get after it, fam.