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July – August 2020
A message from Dr. Amy McKenzie
Meeting our members’ behavioral health needs in a time of crisis
 Across the country, we’ve seen an increased focus on mental health over the past few years and a realization of the many ways that mental health affects physical health.
The need for mental health services became even more apparent as the country struggled to address the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve witnessed an increased number of calls to crisis lines and rising rates of substance use disorder, suicide and domestic violence. (See column by Drs. William Beecroft and Kristyn Gregory, also in this issue.)
That’s why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan took swift action at the start of the pandemic to put in place a range of initiatives to help our members seek care during the crisis and make it easier for our health care providers to care for them. Many of our actions centered around telemedicine.
We introduced incentives to assist providers with funding the adoption of telemedicine. Over a four-week period beginning in mid-March, the percentage of primary care physicians and behavioral health providers who are providing telemedicine services grew from less than 10% to more than 80% — a truly phenomenal increase.
While some of the initiatives we wrote about in the June Record concluded June 30, many other initiatives for battling the COVID-19 pandemic remain, as we wrote in the July Record. For example, for our Medicare Advantage members, we’ll be waiving cost share for common medical and behavioral health services through Dec. 31, 2020, for both in-office and telemedicine visits. And we’ll continue to waive cost share for COVID-19-related treatment for MA members through Dec. 31, 2020. This includes COVID‑19‑related treatment delivered through telemedicine.
I’m extremely proud of all that Blue Cross has done to help battle the pandemic and related mental health issues, as well as the efforts of all the health professionals who have worked on the front lines to save lives and slow the rate of COVID‑19. But our efforts to address mental health issues won’t stop when the pandemic winds down.
We’re keeping our focus on programs designed to address common barriers to receiving behavioral health care, including access, mental health stigma, behavioral health integration, cost of care and member education. Here’s a brief overview of a few of them:
- We’re continuing to develop and expand our Psychiatric Consultant Collaborative Care Model. This model incorporates a psychiatric consultant and a behavioral health care manager (who may be a social worker or psychologist) into the patient’s care team. It provides care for a patient’s mental health concerns within a Patient-Centered Medical Home setting. Training on this model will begin in September.
- We launched the myStrength program, an online tool offered through Livongo®, an independent company that works closely with Blue Cross and Blue Care Network. It provides stress management strategies, parenting tips and emotional support tools, including a module specifically designed for coping with COVID‑19. All members have access to the program at no cost through Dec. 31, 2020. You can let your patients who are Blue Cross or BCN members know they can go to bh.mystrength.com/bcbsmcvd19 and create a free myStrength account.
- We’re in the initial stages of developing a pilot program that would assist primary care physicians in identifying patients who have mental health needs and referring them to psychologists in their area.
At Blue Cross, we’re committed to offering our members — your patients — a continuum of programs to address their mental health needs. With the support and leadership of our health care providers, we want Blue Cross to be the market leader in delivering innovative, holistic solutions focused on the integration of behavioral and physical health.
If you have any thoughts on how we can do a better job of integrating behavioral and physical health, email me at AMcKenzie@bcbsm.com.
Amy McKenzie, M.D., is the medical director for Provider Engagement. |
