A 20-Year Flashback in Behavioral Health & Social Services: Is the Past a Predictor of Our Future?

OPEN MINDS The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst

20-some years ago, I sat in a restaurant with a friend who was an actuarial consultant to the American Psychiatric Association. At the time, I was the vice president of marketing for a start-up managed behavioral health program and we met monthly to try to get a bead on trends in behavioral health benefits and utilization patterns. The common theme at every monthly lunch was that executives in the field seemed to make decisions with little data (or no data or bad data . . .