The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that serious mental illness costs the United States $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year, and mood disorders like major depression are the third most common cause of hospitalization in the U.S. for people ages 18-44. Even more alarming, it is the second most common cause of death for people ages 10-34 and the tenth-leading cause of death for the overall population. Additionally, there are more people receiving treatment for severe and persistent mental illness in state prison systems than hospitals.1
Now, more than ever, behavioral health care is vital to the overall health and wellness of our members.
Whether members are struggling with depression, anxiety, alcohol or drug dependence, CareSource provides treatment and counseling options to help them through the most difficult times in their lives.
In 2019, CareSource made significant internal realignments to create a more responsive operating structure for our members’ behavioral health needs. Our behavioral health division now stands alone from our other products so we can not only devote dedicated resources to our members’ care, but also create specific solutions for specific communities. We’ve also reimagined our value proposition, strengthening our relationships with Community Mental Health Centers and Substance Use Disorder Providers to ultimately get more members into quality behavioral health care.
Certainly, when a member has a behavioral health concern, they face other life challenges as well. Here especially, our holistic approach to health care becomes vital as we help our members not only with their health care, but with societal factors like housing, employment and even foster care and the criminal justice system. We embrace complex issues that often confound other insurers.
For behavioral health, CareSource is all in. Too often, quality care is difficult to access and members with behavioral health needs are overlooked. CareSource prioritizes behavioral health (BH), and we are making a difference.
Our top goal is to get more people into effective and efficient BH care.
Our responsibility is to ensure quality while managing costs.
Our priority providers create a vital safety net for our members.
Our goal is to improve care, partnering locally for unique solutions and capacity development.
Our focus is to assist states with their priorities and address seemingly intractable problems.