Reports from Department of Psychiatry Advance Knowledge in Managed Care (Medicaid Costs and Utilization of Collaborative Versus Colocation Care for Patients With Depression): Managed Care

2024 FEB 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Research findings on Managed Care are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating in Bronx, New York, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The authors examined cost and utilization metrics for racially diverse Medicaid primary care patients with depression receiving care through either a collaborative care model (CoCM) of integration or the standard colocation model. Data from a retrospective cohort of Medicaid patients screening positive for clinically significant depression during January 2016-December 2017 were analyzed to assess health care costs and selected utilization measures.”

Financial support for this research came from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through innovation grant.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the Department of Psychiatry, “Seven primary care clinics providing CoCM were compared with 16 clinics providing colocated behavioral health care. Data for the first year and second year after a patient re-ceived an initial Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score $10 were analyzed. In the first year, compared with patients receiving colocated care (N=3,061), CoCM patients (N=4,315) had significantly lower odds of emergency department (ED) visits (OR=0.95) and medical specialty office visits (OR=0.92), with slightly higher odds of primary care provider (PCP) visits (OR=1. 03) and behavioral health office visits (OR=1.03). In year 2, CoCM patients (N=2,62 3) had significantly lower odds of inpatient medical admissions (OR=0.87), ED visits (OR=0.84), medical specialty office visits (OR=0.89), and PCP visits (OR=0.94) than the colocated care patients (N=1,838). The two groups did not significantly differ in total cost in both years. Access to CoCM treatment in primary care for racially diverse Medicaid patients with depression was associated with more positive health care utilization outcomes than for those accessing colocated treatment.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “As organi-zations continue to seek opportunities to integrate behav-ioral health care into primary care, consideration of health care costs and utilization may be helpful in the selection and implementation of integration models.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Medicaid Costs and Utilization of Collaborative Versus Colocation Care for Patients With Depression. Psychiatric Services, 2023;74(11):1132-1136. Psychiatric Services can be contacted at: Amer Psychiatric Publishing, Inc, 800 Maine Ave SW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20024, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Henry Chung, Behav Sci Albert Einstein Coll Med, Dept. of Psychiatry, Bronx, Bronx, NY 10461, United States. Additional authors for this research include Michelle Blackmore, Urvashi Patel, Dana Stein and Kayla Collado.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.20220604. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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