The Affordable Care Act (health care reform) emphasizes integration of behavioral and physical health care; however, there are few models of integration for children with serious behavioral health challenges. Care management entities provide a vehicle for effectively coordinating behavioral health and primary care.

This webinar highlighted the experiences of two CMEs — Wraparound Milwaukee and the former Massachusetts Mental Health Services Program for Youth — in their efforts to identify and engage primary care providers, ensure that children served by the CME have a medical home, that there is coordination between behavioral and physical health care, and that particular attention is paid to children on psychotropic medications.

Agenda

I. Introduction

Speaker: Dayana Simons, Senior Program Officer, CHCS

Ms. Simons provided an overview of the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration grant and introduced the speakers.

Speaker: Sheila A. Pires, Partner, Human Service Collaborative, Washington, DC; Senior Program Consultant, CHCS Child Health Quality

Ms. Pires provided a brief context for the presentation.

II. Coordination with Primary Care

Speakers: Bruce Kamradt, Administrator; Dennis Kozel, Medical Director, Wraparound Milwaukee

Mr. Kamradt and Dr. Kozel described the approach used by Wraparound Milwaukee to ensure that children have identified primary care providers and to coordinate with those providers, particularly around the issue of psychotropic medications.

Speaker: Katherine E. Grimes, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director of the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI), Psychiatric Research & Academic Center; Former Director, Mental Health Services Program for Youth (MHSPY)

Dr. Grimes discussed the approach used in Massachusetts by the former MHSPY, a unique CME model that integrated physical and behavioral health dollars. Dr. Grimes discussed strategies to engage primary care providers, the role of PCPs in the MHSPY model, and relevant outcomes.