On Thursday January 18, 2023, I attended a Behavioral Health Stakeholder call sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”), including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (“SAMHSA”) on its new innovation in behavioral health (“IBH”) payment model.  The IBH Model seeks to bridge the gap between behavioral and physical health. Practice participants under the IBH Model will screen and assess patients for select health conditions, as well as mental health conditions and/or substance use disorder, in community-based behavioral health practices. IBH is a state-based model, led by state Medicaid Agencies, with a goal of aligning payment between Medicaid and Medicare for integrated services. 

CMS will select up to eight states, the District of Columbia, or U.S. territories, to participate through cooperative agreements. Interested states will be required to apply to a Notice of Funding Opportunity that will be published in the Spring of 2024.  Practice participants within selected states will be eligible to participate in both the Medicaid and Medicare payment models.  To learn more about the Behavioral Health Integration model, visit https://www.cms.gov/files/document/ibh-fact-sheet.pdf 

Is your state interested in participating in the IBH Model?  Therapy Brands recommends that community-based providers reach out to their Medicaid contact to inquire on their state’s intent to apply for this program.  It’s worth noting, that all state selected practice participants are required to adopt and use health IT standards under the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Health IT Certification Program over the course of the model period. The IBH Model team is working with ONC to develop requirements and guidelines for practice participants.  As a reminder, Therapy Brands products EchoVantage, TenEleven, and Procentive are all ONC-certified EHRs.