It’s no secret that the demand for behavioral healthcare and addiction treatment services have skyrocketed in recent years. With the rise in synthetic opioids, the proliferation of P2P meth, the mental health challenges represented by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a number of other global crises, the United States’ rates of SUD have inched to record highs.
While the behavioral health sector has expanded along with the rise in demand for services, it has not kept pace with the explosion in need. Despite doubling in size between 2019 and 2009, the behavioral health landscape still fails to meet the overwhelming need for care in our country.
The answer to the accessibility problem seems obvious: simply make it easier for people who are suffering from SUD to access the care they need. The reality is not so simple.
There are many drivers behind the accessibility problem. The behavioral health staffing crisis, enduring stigma around addiction, insurance discrepancies, and lack of awareness and training in evidence-based treatment are just a few factors influencing accessibility issues. All of these contributing factors can be “fixed” in the long-term but they will take years to be completely resolved, even if a solid plan to address them is put in place in the near future.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the creative solutions that have been proposed to address the accessibility problem in behavioral health in the medium-term.
Accessibility Idea #1: Reimagine the “Typical” Addiction Treatment Therapy Session
Typical addiction treatment and mental health therapy sessions are 30 or 60 minutes long. They are usually delivered by a licensed therapist over a relatively long period of time, although the specific cadence of appointments and the overall length of treatment often varies, depending on the patient’s needs, the clinician’s judgment, and what the patient’s insurance plan will allow.
With a set number of clinicians and only a limited number of appointments available, this bottleneck can - and frequently does - create an accessibility problem for patients seeking care.
Clearly, the easiest way to solve this issue is to grow the behavioral health workforce. However, it takes years and a lot of funding to train up effective behavioral health clinicians. This solution can’t happen overnight.
In the meantime, some experts are suggesting that it’s time to reimagine the “typical” behavioral health therapy session to allow more patients to access care.
Ideas include:
Shorter duration of sessions
Shorter course of treatment
More group therapy sessions
Less frequent sessions in a primary care setting (aka integrated care)
The merits of these ideas are up for debate, but new research does show that integrated care does improve access to mental and behavioral health treatment. That said, it’s unlikely that the abbreviated care proposed in some of the aforementioned ideas can deliver the same patient outcomes as our current standards of care.
Accessibility Idea #2: Allow More Providers to Deliver Addiction Treatment Services
Currently, mental health professionals must go through years of training and education to complete the certifications necessary to provide therapy to SUD patients. When high rates of burnout force these professionals to leave the industry, it’s difficult to fill vacant positions due to the excessive gate-keeping blocking would-be providers from the behavioral health professional career path.
To make matters worse, we need roughly 80,000 more behavioral health providers to meet the current level of demand for treatment in this country.
One solution here is to allow more types of paraprofessionals to deliver therapy to SUD patients and to offer reimbursement rates that reflect the care these providers are capable of delivering. Coaches, peer mentors, and other healers are among the potential pool of addiction treatment therapy providers targeted in a solution like this.
One downside? This solution could be controversial, as it may result in continued under-reimbursement for services from existing behavioral health professionals.
Accessibility Idea #3: Lean on Virtual and Ai Driven Clinical Tools to Address the Addiction Treatment Accessibility Crisis
Expanded group therapy and shorter therapy sessions aren’t the only way to provide addiction treatment services at scale without increasing the number of existing providers. It’s also possible to leverage technology and Ai-driven solutions to provide better access to addiction treatment services to more patients who need it.
Clearly, this approach is controversial and needs more research. However, we’ve already seen a rise in evidence-based, FDA-approved digital therapeutics in the addiction treatment community. It’s not completely unreasonable to think that expanding the reach of tools like these might help fill the gap between the number of existing clinicians and the number of patients who need care in the short- or medium-term.
Accessibility Idea #4: Expand Care Networks and Reduce Reliance on Out of Network Providers
Just 56% of psychiatrists accept commercial insurance.
Payers are notorious for offering psychiatrists and other mental health providers lower reimbursement rates compared with other physical health providers, despite similar levels of training, cost of education, and years of experience. This sets up an environment where patients who need services are five times more likely to seek out of network care for their mental health condition versus a physical health concern.
One simple solution to this structural issue is to ask payers to expand their care networks - or perhaps force them to do so with legislative changes.
Addiction Treatment Accessibility Begins With Smart Tools for Providers. We Can Help.
Behave Health is committed to making it easier - and more profitable - to operate evidence-based, results-focused addiction treatment centers.
Our all-in-one app puts RCM, clinical, administration, staff, admissions, alumni, residents, treatment plans, insurance authorizations and more - all at your fingertips.
Get your free trial started today and see why more addiction treatment centers prefer Behave Health.
PS. Just getting started with behavioral health? Need help with certification, too? Behave Health can also help direct you to the right resources for help with Licensing or Accreditation by either The Joint Commission or CARF. Mention to your product specialist that you’re interested in this service after you start your free trial!