Behavioral Health & Health Care Financing

The health care financing landscape has undergone significant changes over the past decade and will continue to change in the years to come. This constantly evolving environment creates opportunities & challenges for behavioral health organizations. Health care reform, including the Affordable Care Act, has resulted in new or expanded funding streams for behavioral health, each with its own requirements and restrictions. And the past several years have brought behavioral health coverage to millions of Americans -- spurred by Medicaid and private insurance. Yet public and private payers continue to innovate and seek reforms, and many policy decisions now rest with states. 

Carnevale Associates helps governments shape and implement financing policy and works with providers and other stakeholders to prepare for and respond to those changes. For seven years, our team worked with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), first as part of the Financing Center of Excellence and later the Center for Financing Reform and Innovation. We conducted in-depth policy research on topics ranging from the interaction of state and federal parity laws to the implications of same-day billing restrictions. We also created the Financing Focus to identify, explain, and disseminate health care financing developments affecting substance use treatment. Working "on the ground," Carnevale Associates staff has helped clients such as the National Council on Problem Gambling and the Virginia Region Ten Community Services Board, providing strategic planning and industry analysis. Our team leverages our behavioral health knowledge to inform training & technical assistance for SAMHSA's Center for the Application for Prevention Technologies, looking at the integration of substance use prevention and primary care -- particularly in the context of the opioid epidemic. 

Our Training & Technical Assistance, Research & Evaluation, Strategic Planning, and Policy Formulation teams have worked on behavioral health & health care financing projects.