Future Trends in Behavioral Health Care – Integration of Behavioral Health/Primary Health Care, New Technologies, Health Care Reform, & More

May 13th, 2009 The policy issues – and the practice implications – of pending parity legislation and health care reform initiatives were the focus of the opening keynote address at the annual conference of the Alabama Council of Community Mental Health Boards. Monica E. Oss, Chief Executive Officer of OPEN MINDS provided an overview of the implications of these policy issues on behavioral health provider organization business models. She discussed the major changes in treatment funding allocations – decreased use of institutionally-based service delivery; a higher proportion of funding going to pharmaceutical interventions; and a growing proportion of services paid for directly . . .