Information Center Bulletin
Volume 1, No. 1 Winter 1996-97

Managed Care: Providing Tools To Compete

Community-based providers need new skills to compete in a managed care environment. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is meeting that need through a number of projects.

For example, the SAMHSA Office of Organization and Financing (Managed Care) is developing a series of 12 technical assistance manuals to give community-based providers the nuts-and-bolts tools they need to work effectively with managed care companies.

"Some of the first manuals have to do with negotiating contracts, developing provider networks, assessing risk, and improving information systems," says Eric Goplerud, Ph.D., then the Office's Director.

As these products become available, the National Mental Health Information Center will help make them accessible. "The Information Center is an extremely efficient way to get information out to people rapidly and in the size chunks they want," says Goplerud. "It will allow people to scan the material and download what's appropriate for them."

These projects are collaborative efforts. "None of us has the resources to do it ourselves," notes Goplerud. "So we're targeting the areas the Federal Government can contribute the most, such as identifying best practices and getting those publicized, convening people, and facilitating consensus."

One such consensus-building effort involves clinical guidelines for managed care developed by the Department of Defense (DoD). SAMHSA is working with State mental health program directors, State Medicaid directors, the the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, representatives of consumers and families, and others to review the DoD's criteria for best practices and to determine what's applicable for counties and States.

"This role--linking and leveraging disparate groups with similar concerns--is how we can have a major impact, and it's very much the same role as the Information Center's. The Information Center can't go out and write all the materials needed. It can, however, point to information that's available and make it accessible to other people," says Goplerud. "This is consistent with the Agency's overall direction away from demonstration grants that provide services and toward knowledge development and application."

The SAMHSA Office of Organization and Financing has its own Web site that is linked to The Information Center and other mental health and substance abuse organizations. Whether it's through The Information Center or the Office of Organization and Financing 's Web site, anyone who's interested can get practical information--such as a complete list of all managed behavioral healthcare activities in the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a list of all managed behavioral healthcare training materials and documents produced by various national organizations.

SAMHSA's Office of Organization and Financing also funds a monitoring and tracking project carried out through the Mental Health Policy Resource Center and George Washington University.

"It's designed to provide rapid information about emerging trends in the field, particularly within public sector managed behavioral healthcare," Goplerud says. "How well a managed care system is working may seem very different depending on who you talk to," he adds. "Whether it's the State mental health program director, county mental health program director, providers, consumers, or advocates, the perception may be different. So we're looking at several sources of converging information to tease apart what's happening now-rather than waiting 3 to 5 years to generate a documentary report or evaluation."

The Information Center will distribute the monitoring and tracking project's quarterly reports.

For more information, contact Eric Goplerud, Ph.D., at SAMHSA at 301-443-2817, or Jeffrey Buck, Ph.D., at the Center for Mental Health Services at 301-443-2440.

The SAMHSA Organization and Financing Web Site is at http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/ManagedCare/default.asp

Information Center Bulletin
Volume 1, No. 1
KEN96-0040