Each year, as a member plan of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP), Commonwealth Care Alliance, Inc. (CCA) has the opportunity to submit a nomination for ACAP’s Supporting the Safety Net Award, which honors a community-based organization whose work goes the extra mile. CCA welcomes this chance to highlight one of our many provider partners who are instrumental in equitably improving the health and well-being of people with significant health needs. This year, CCA nominated Behavioral Health Network, Inc. (BHN) and we’re pleased to share that BHN has received an Honorable Mention for the 2024 awards program.
BHN is a longstanding community-based organization providing comprehensive behavioral health services to adults, children, and families in western Massachusetts. BHN’s excellence in developing innovative care programs has resulted in improved outcomes and quality of life for CCA’s members with significant physical and behavioral health needs.
BHN is a long-time trusted provider for CCA’s dual eligible members and since 2013 has also served as a delegated Health Home (HH) under an innovative value-based care model designed to build trust, increase member engagement, and improve outcomes for members with complex behavioral health, medical, and/or social needs. Partnership, prevention, and use of diversionary services have become an effective hallmark of BHN’s robust model – with great results:
- In 2023, of One Care members care managed by BHN, 95% were connected with primary care and 85% completed a comprehensive needs-based assessment.
- Between 2019 and 2023, BHN HH saw a 20% increase in their rate of members who received a follow-up visit within 48-hours of a post-acute/subacute discharge.
- Their comprehensive care management resulted in lower hospital admissions as compared to their peers for the 2019-2022 reporting years.
One of CCA’s members and a BHN patient perhaps best describes the difference BHN makes:
“All of my providers work at BHN – my therapist, my psychiatrist, and I have a recovery coach for 3+ years. We were so close that even now that I am discharged, my recovery coach still checks in from time to time. I feel like BHN saved my life. The service providers at BHN have been a critical supportive resource for me.”
This honor from ACAP highlights the ongoing commitment of BHN – and is similarly reflective of ALL of CCA’s valued provider partners – in supporting the needs of those we mutually serve.