AHRQ Releases Nine Core Integrated Behavioral Health Care Quality Measures

The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has identified nine core measures for assessing the quality of behavioral health care services integrated into primary care. Integrated behavioral health care encompasses the care provided by a team of primary care and behavioral health professionals working together to provide patient-centered care for a defined population; in this context, behavioral health encompasses behavioral factors in chronic illness care, care of physical symptoms associated with stress rather than diseases, and health behaviors including ineffective patterns of health care utilization, as well as mental health and addiction conditions and diagnoses. The measures . . .