After hosting a series of community conversations about the integration of physical and behavioral health services in Arizona, Banner–University Health Plans (BUHP) has developed a solution to give clinicians an integrated view of members' physical and mental health history, medication history and social determinants of health at the point of care.
BUHP, a division of Banner Health and the largest Medicaid provider in Arizona, is rolling out its Banner Navigation Accelerator model using CareEmpower, a care coordination technology platform from vendor HealthBI. The company says the platform is deployed across close to 70,000 clinical sites in the country, supporting providers in seven different Medicaid managed health plans in Arizona alone.
The Banner Navigation Accelerator tool extracts, aggregates and normalizes data from claims, Arizona's health information exchange (HealthCurrent), provider-developed care plans and other data sources. This in turn creates a single longitudinal record of behavioral and physical health that includes:
- Provider encounter history—giving both behavioral and physical health providers insight into past diagnoses, the full care a member is receiving, and when care was last provided.
- Medication history—essential for prescribing medications that won't counteract or duplicate existing prescriptions.
- Lab history—important for preventing duplicate orders for expensive tests.
- Hospital admission/discharge and transfer alerts—to assure that members receive prompt follow-up care that will prevent readmission.
BUHP and HealthBI said they have designed a streamlined consent workflow and privacy rules into the Banner Navigation Accelerator, and a visibility model to enable appropriate sharing of behavioral health and substance use comorbidities in compliance with federal 42 CFR Part 2 patient record regulations.
Once they are presented with this integrated view, providers can then act on the member's needs within minutes—from prescribing the right medication to referring members to appropriate services. This includes referring to substance abuse services, with appropriate member consent in place, in minutes or less.
"The Banner Navigation Accelerator is exactly what the name implies—a model that speeds up and streamlines the path to needed behavioral and physical health services while providing linkages to community resources,” said Sandra Stein, M.D., medical director for Complete Care, Banner–University Health Plans, in a statement.
In a press release, Banner described some of the community conversations that led to the deployment of the Navigation Accelerator. First responders talked about taking people experiencing a behavioral health event to the emergency department—or worse, to jail—because of lack of information about the person's providers, prescriptions or other important health background details. They added that access to just a few pieces of additional information would help first responders support more members by providing options other than the justice system.
Providers described the persistent challenges in obtaining comprehensive medical records from other providers, which made it difficult to apply the right diagnoses, safely prescribe medications and devise effective plans of care.
“One of the most affecting stories for me personally came from a distraught mother, whose child was experiencing acute behavioral health issues," said Kathleen Oestreich, BUHP's chief executive officer, in a statement. "It took this mother weeks to schedule an appointment with a provider, only to ultimately discover it was the wrong provider. I left that meeting knowing we had to change this deeply challenged system.”
