It’s
evident
that
there
is
still
a
challenge
with
access
to
mental
health
support.
There’s
a
provider
shortage,
and
the
available
providers’
time
slots
fill
up
quickly.
But
more
than
that,
receiving
quality
mental
health
care
is
also
difficult.
Payers
collect
a
lot
of
data
on
patient
care,
but
it’s
not
always
obvious
how
good
that
care
was.
This
is
according
to
Dr.
Taft
Parsons,
chief
psychiatric
officer
of
CVS
Health,
during
an
interview
at
the
recent
Behavioral
Health
Tech
conference
in
San
Diego.
He
argued
that
in
order
to
improve
the
quality
of
care
in
behavioral
health,
there
needs
to
be
better
guidelines
for
what
good
actually
looks
like.
And
this
may
require
some
action
from
lawmakers.
“I
personally
think
that
the
way
to
really
get
to
consensus
broadly
is
something
that
takes
policy
action,”
he
said.
“We
certainly
want
to
participate
in
defining
what
good
looks
like.
But
it’s
hard
for
payers,
providers,
advocates,
everybody
…
to
all
be
on
the
exact
same
page
of,
‘What
does
good
look
like?’
And
I
think
that
sometimes
the
only
way
that
that
happens
is
when
there
is
a
policy
that
says
we’re
going
to
define
it.”
Parsons
added
that
care
in
behavioral
health
is
oftentimes
measured
by,
“Did
you
do
a
thing?”
However,
this
doesn’t
always
give
the
full
picture.
“My
poster
child
HEDIS
measure
for
that
is
follow
up
after
hospitalization,”
Parsons
said.
“Did
you
get
them
in
for
an
appointment
within
seven
days?
And
while
that
may
indicate
that
across
a
large
number
of
people,
folks
that
get
in
within
seven
days
do
better
than
folks
that
don’t,
it
doesn’t
tell
you
whether
or
not
that
clinician
actually
did
a
good
medication
reconciliation.
Did
they
make
sure
that
social
determinants
of
health
needs
are
met?
Did
they
do
the
things
in
that
appointment
that
are
actually
going
to
lead
to
the
success
of
that
patient
in
their
health
journey?”
He
argued
that
behavioral
health
should
shift
from
tracking
whether
clinicians
completed
tasks
to
measuring
whether
patients’
health
actually
improved.
“The
way
that
that
happens
is
through
some
of
these
policy
changes
that
I
think
have
been
long
overdue
on
the
behavioral
health
side,”
he
said.
“I
won’t
say
that
they’re
perfect
on
the
physical
health
side,
but
they’re
much
further
along.”
Better
defining
quality
in
behavioral
health
could
also
help
advance
value-based
care,
especially
given
how
differently
people
interpret
good
care.
“It’s
hard
for
us,
or
anybody,
to
write
a
value-based
contract
with
that
many
different
variables.
When
there’s
alignment
on
what
is
defined
as
good
care,
it’s
much
easier
for
us
all
to
work
together,
to
actually
pay
for
results
instead
of
pay
for
activity,”
he
said.
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phototechno,
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