Collaborative Callout
One workgroup participant, ValueOptions New Jersey, aimed to reduce the number of low-need, long-stay youth in residential care by 30%. Their intervention exceeded this goal — and cut the target group by 95%.
This tool kit shares the experiences of nine Medicaid managed care organizations, which collaborated over a two-year period to identify better ways to care for youth with serious behavioral health needs. Its pages tell of quality-improvement strategies, challenges, lessons learned and care innovations worthy of a closer look. The end goal? A rare win-win: reducing costs while improving outcomes for these high-needs youth.
Seven collaborative participant organizations implemented and sustained their improvement plans. These plans focused on three areas: 1) educating primary care providers to better identify and treat adolescent depression; 2) reducing the unnecessary use of long-term, high-cost residential services; and 3) offering customized care management services.