As the demand for mental health services skyrockets, primary care providers are expanding their offerings to include behavioral health. Here’s how to build a multi-specialty tech stack.
Two years ago, the Robert Graham Center, a research and policy organization focused on family medicine and primary care, released a report that revealed fewer than half of the 15% to 20% of U.S. adults diagnosed with depression or mental illness had received care for their condition. At the time, the findings underscored the critical need for access to mental health services across the country. According to the center, a clear and effective solution to addressing the lack of adequate care to mental health services: taking an integrated approach to primary care and behavioral health.
There are multiple integrative models for combining primary care and behavioral health, but essentially, it involves screening for mental health concerns and providing mental healthcare within a primary care setting. The Robert Graham Center’s report highlighted a physician survey showing that 94% of physicians said integrated care directly improves patient care, and 90% said that it is a “needed” service.
Recently, my company surveyed private practice clinical and admin staff, and found 67% of the respondents have a behavioral specialist on staff. The evidence is undeniable: to provide better care and deliver a more holistic patient experience, primary care providers are expanding their services to include mental healthcare. But what does that actually look like when building out a technology stack that supports all sides of your practice? Here are the five key components of an effective technology stack for primary care practices that aim to deliver exceptional behavioral care services.
5 key components of an effective mental health technology stack
1. An interoperable and configurable EHR that keeps patient data clean
Primary care practices have countless EHR options, but providing behavioral healthcare requires a specialized EHR that aligns with the daily workflows of multi-specialty medical groups. An EHR designed for behavioral health includes the same interoperability levels as a standard EHR, but also offers configurable behavioral health notes and sub notes with DSM-5 criteria options for both adults and pediatric patients.
It’s also important to have access to secure ECPS online prescribing functionality with two-factor authentication and security validation to prescribe controlled substances with necessary safeguards in place. EHR solutions with “my eyes only” security settings can help safeguard patient data, and a bidirectional lab interface is a huge help when sending lab orders for bloodwork and tests.
2. Practice management software that automates key workflows
Of course, your practice management software should integrate with your EHR and patient engagement tools, but mental health services require practice management tools that deliver online scheduling capabilities that make it easy for patients to schedule appointments and for providers to manage high patient volumes.
An effective practice management platform serves as a central database that ensures patient demographic information is easily passed to your EHR and medical and coding tools. This functionality is especially important to behavioral healthcare providers who need access to the same crucial patient information as the rest of the healthcare team.
3. A medical billing platform designed for the unique needs of behavioral health specialists
Choosing the right medical billing tools is foundational to a practice’s success. For behavioral health providers, specialized billing solutions that include mental health disorder-specific templates simplify workflows, accelerate claims processes and billing statements, and reduce errors that can cause disruptions in the patient experience.
Also, with more than 72,000 ICD-10 medical billing codes, finding the correct behavioral health code can be a massive challenge. Mental health specialists need medical billing platforms that can help practices efficiently select the correct code for each patient encounter. Ultimately, ensuring your medical and billing solutions are built for primary practices that offer behavioral health services makes the difference between building an efficient, thriving practice versus constantly having to put out fires and play catch-up.
4. Telehealth solutions built to deliver exceptional care across the practice
During the pandemic, telehealth became central to care delivery models. Since 2020, telehealth has continued to be integral to the patient experience—especially in the behavioral health space. The survey conducted by my company found that nearly 70% of medical group employees receive telehealth appointment requests for mental health services on a weekly basis.
But telehealth for behavioral healthcare requires a sophisticated solution designed for the unique needs of patients seeking mental healthcare. For example, effective telehealth tools integrate with a practice’s tech stack—from the patient portal platform and practice management software to the EHR—so that patient data and charting notes flow across the platform. A practice’s telehealth tools must support group appointments in addition to one-on-one virtual appointments, and work on laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
5. Patient engagement tools that understand the nuances of behavioral healthcare
Today’s patient engagement tools offer a slew of automations to streamline communications with patients, but behavioral health specialists need more than automation features. For primary care practices new to behavioral health, trust and empathy are paramount to providing exceptional behavioral health services. Mental health specialists need patient engagement tools designed to understand these nuances.
Patient engagement tools that allow a practice to customize patient alerts and reminders, in addition to intake forms, may ensure patient engagement initiatives that put patients at ease, while also helping them adhere to treatment plans.
The reality is that providing behavioral health within a primary care setting requires specialized tools designed for the nuances of behavioral healthcare. It simply is not enough to shoehorn generic software solutions into your healthcare technology stack. By selecting technology designed to meet the needs of behavioral health specialists, primary care providers are able to deliver an integrated, holistic patient experience, while also reducing administrative burdens and streamlining daily operational workflows.
Amanda Sharp
Amanda Sharp is CEO of AdvancedMD.
