Trends in Bundled Outpatient Behavioral Health Services in VA-Direct Versus VA-Purchased Care.

ABSTRACT: The Veterans Health Administration (VA) increasingly purchases community-based care (CC) to improve healthcare access, including behavioral health. In 2018, VA introduced standardized episodes of care (SEOCs) to guide authorization and purchase of CC services for specific indications in a defined timeframe without bundling payment. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we describe trends in VA and CC behavioral healthcare utilization using the VA Outpatient Psychiatry SEOC definition. Counts of Outpatient Psychiatry SEOC-allowable service and procedure codes during fiscal years 2016-2019 were organized according to four SEOC-defined service types (evaluation and management, laboratory services, psychiatry services, transitional care) and measured as percentages of all included codes

SUBMITTER: Kelley AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11489023 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature