New Report on BCBS of MA Foundation’s Innovative Integrated Care Practices

The newly released report developed by JSI finds positive outcomes from the BCBSMA Foundation’s Fostering Effective Integration Initiative. The final evaluation lays out findings related to access, patient outcomes, and costs of integrated behavioral health (IBH) and highlights innovative practices and patient stories.

JSI’s report found that through the three-year initiative:

• More than 60,000 people had the opportunity to receive IBH services through eight organizations providing IBH services to an expanded population or to a new setting.
• Over 5,000 patients were determined to be in need of IBH services.
• 3,574 patients in need had at least one visit with an integrated care provider, with 4.4 visits on average over a six-month period.
• Innovative integrated care practices were identified for serving patients living with severe mental illness, adolescents, and elderly.
• Participating organizations improved their capacity to collect and use quality improvement data.

The Fostering Effective Integration Initiative was launched in 2016 to expand access to integrated behavioral health and primary care services in Massachusetts. JSI was chosen to conduct an evaluation of FEI to assess the impact of various models of IBH on access, clinical outcomes, and cost for different populations and settings.