Access To Care & Care Continuity Are Front & Center For Health Plans

When we’re working with provider organizations on building better relationships with health plans, my colleague and OPEN MINDS Senior Associate Paul Duck always starts with the access issue. His repeated refrain—one of the first questions any health plan will have is how fast can consumers get the services they need and request (see Getting Paid More For What You Do – Tactics To Increase Fees & Rates From Payers & Moving To New Reimbursement Models)?

Why the payer focus on access? Timely access to care, particularly behavioral health services, has been linked to lower costs, lower emergency room use . . .