By Christy Winter – For decades, paper-based authorizations have stalled the healthcare industry, creating administrative backlogs for care teams and critical treatment delays for patients. On average, practices spend 13 hours each week completing 40 prior authorizations per clinician, a massive administrative burden that diverts nearly 700 hours from patient care annually.
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Talent Tuesday Workforce Issues brought to you by St. Bonaventure University. The demand for behavioral health services in the US has grown faster than the workforce meant to deliver them. Online graduate education has become one of the more practical ways to close that gap. Consider online degrees in behavioral health services.
By Louis Devaleix – My business partner and I operated a multi-state behavioral health organization with 10 facilities across five states. We struggled with the lack of accountability and transparency in our operations, feeling as though we were running our business blindly.
By Amy Lukowski Psy.D. – The behavioral health crisis isn’t just a workforce problem; it’s a care delivery problem. The implications of the shortage of behavioral health professionals are concerning for anyone in healthcare. It stands to worsen the widespread, untreated behavioral health issues that cause excessive wait times for appointments.
As states pursue Rural Health Transformation funding, five priorities keep rising to the top: telehealth, workforce stability, integrated behavioral health, stronger primary care, and the data systems needed for value‑based care. This week’s Friday at Five breaks down what these trends mean for the future of rural health.
By Andy Flanagan – Behavioral health providers are treating more patients than ever while operating in three overlapping zones of regulatory uncertainty. DEA prescribing flexibilities expire and get extended at the last minute, again. Telehealth reimbursement parity loses enforcement teeth even as virtual care becomes standard practice.
By Thomas Keane MD MBA & Christopher Carroll – Patients with behavioral health conditions are often dually-burdened with chronic physical health conditions. Consequently, providers caring for these patients must coordinate their care to get the best possible health outcomes.
By Laura Young – A review of the state-submitted RHT abstracts shows that while workforce, telehealth, and hospital sustainability remain prominent, the most consistent throughline across states is the need to fix how information moves at the last mile.
By Scott Anderson – Many behavioral health agencies lack adequate controls to address and recover from a cybersecurity incident. What these agencies need are capabilities such as adequate backup and recovery, managed detection and response, security information and event management, data loss prevention and other key security elements.