The national conversation around access to mental health care is vital for those who live in communities that lack mental health clinicians. But how does Array overcome patient obstacles such as potential tech literacy, access, or uncertainty about telebehavioral health services? Watch Array CEO Geoffrey Boyce discuss with the American Journal of Managed Care about how good telehealth isn’t about the technology; it’s about the level of service from the licensed professional. Watch on AJMC.com.
Accounting for only pandemic-induced disruptions, children and adolescents with largely untreated anxiety, trauma, and isolation, have been pushed past a breaking point. The same can be said for seniors, too. In an op-ed in HIT Consultant, Array CEO Geoffrey Boyce explains that this unprecedented need for mental health services can’t be met through traditional models of care. The more telehealth is validated as a permanent fixture in healthcare with proper reimbursement, the better off our country’s mental health will be. Read on HIT Consultant.
As rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use have increased, Array is redesigning its behavioral health programs for the 1 in 3 Americans needing behavioral health services every year. In an interview with the American Journal of Managed Care, Array CEO Geoffrey Boyce shares how we’re rising to the occasion to deliver evidence-based clinical programs and services across the continuum of care. Watch on AJMC.com
Array Behavioral Care helps bring telepsychiatry services to individuals in communities seeking psychiatric care and treatment.
MT. CARMEL, Ill. – APRIL 18, 2022 – Wabash Community Health Center and Array Behavioral Care are pleased to announce a new partnership to increase access to behavioral health care for the residents of southern Illinois. This new program ensures individuals in these communities have access to timely, quality psychiatric care. Through this service, patients can connect with experienced and licensed telepsychiatry clinicians skilled at diagnosing and treating depression, autism, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia.
“The entire Wabash Community Health Center team works hard to provide the best possible health outcomes for the patients we serve,” said Cathy Ruth, Program Director of Wabash Community Health Center. “Mental health is a vital part of individual health and wellbeing, and we believe that telepsychiatry can help patients get the care that they need. There’s a great need for mental health services in our area, and we’re proud to improve access to care as we meet the health needs of the communities we serve. That’s why we’re excited to offer this new innovative service through our partnership with Array.”
As one of the earliest advocates of telepsychiatry more than 20 years ago, Array has advocated for updated policy and regulations that increase access to telepsychiatry in homes, hospitals, and primary care offices for patients and clinicians. Telepsychiatry is mental and behavioral health care delivered using real-time videoconferencing in a secure, private place. Research shows that the quality of care is maintained through telepsychiatry and has been found to be as effective as in-person care. Array’s telepsychiatry clinicians are licensed specialists and trained in providing quality care through technology.
Wabash Community Health Center is a federally qualified health center located at The Depot in Mount Carmel, Illinois. The onsite care team will connect seamlessly with Array’s s on-demand psychiatrist and psychiatric nurse practitioner. This virtual integration will enable Wabash Community Health Center clinicians and staff to work with a remote psychiatric specialist to conduct remote psychiatric consultations, prescribe medication, and deliver peer-to-peer consults resources to support strained and overextended in-person staff.
Telepsychiatry is a safe and effective way to meet the escalating need for behavioral care, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide shortage of mental health professionals. There is a significant scarcity of mental health professionals throughout Illinois, causing many residents to not receive the treatment they need. According to research by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, only 24 percent of the need for mental health services is being met in Illinois. In Wabash County specifically, the ratio of population to mental health providers is 340:1.
“Wabash Community Health Center serves as a critical healthcare provider in southern Illinois, and Array is pleased to partner with them to offer telepsychiatry services to the vital portion of the population who seek care with them,” said Jennifer Comerford, Vice President of Scheduled Care at Array. “Telepsychiatry is a great solution in states and communities across the country where there is significant mental health need and a shortage of trained professionals.”
About Array Behavioral Care
Array Behavioral Care is the nation’s leading clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice with a mission to transform access to quality, timely behavioral health care. Array offers telepsychiatry solutions and services across the continuum of care, from hospital to home, through its OnDemand, Scheduled and AtHome divisions. For more than 20 years, Array has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and health systems, community health care organizations and payers of all sizes to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underserved individuals, facilities and communities. As an industry pioneer and established thought leader, Array has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com.
About Wabash Community Health Center
Wabash Community Health Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing quality, affordable health care to all members of our community - which means we treat patients regardless of their ability to pay for services.
Our health center provides primary care and behavioral health services and is located in Mt. Carmel, Illinois at 1001 N. Market Street. The Wabash Community Health Center received Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) look-alike status by Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). Federally Qualified Health Centers are community-based health care providers that receive funds from the HRSA Health Center Program to provider primary care services in underserved areas.
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J.— Array Behavioral Care, the nation’s leading virtual psychiatry and therapy practice, responded to President Joe Biden’s vision for a national mental health strategy to strengthen system capacity, connect more Americans to care, and create a continuum of support. During his first State of the Union Address, President Biden called for getting, “…all Americans the mental health services they need. More people they can turn to for help, and full parity between physical and mental health care.”
“President Biden’s recent declaration was proof that our nation’s mental health crisis is a priority, at the highest level of government,” said CEO Geoffrey Boyce. “We urge all behavioral health clinicians and organizations everywhere to answer the call to take on mental health in any way possible—and as the President stated, ‘especially for our children, whose lives have been turned upside down.’ On behalf of the thousands of clinicians and staff nationwide, Array is energized by the Biden Administration’s commitment to transform how mental health services are accessed in America and will continue to play an integral role in creating a healthcare system that is equitable and accessible to patients across the continuum of care.”
As one of the earliest advocates of telepsychiatry more than 20 years ago, Array has worked to improve regulations that increase the ease-of-use of telepsychiatry in homes, hospitals, and primary care offices for patients and clinicians. Telebehavioral care services for adults and children are actively delivered by Array in all of these care settings, including hospitals in rural communities like Sidney Health Center in Montana and VCU Tappahannock in Virginia, an adult and one-of-a-kind pediatric Collaborative Care treatment program with United Physicians, an independent physician organization of 2,000 providers in Michigan, and in patients’ homes nationwide via Array AtHome.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically exacerbated a long-standing challenge of capacity: traditional models of direct care inefficiently use our behavioral care workforce and limits the number of patients who can be treated,” added Dr. Jim Varrell, Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Array Behavioral Care. “The data continues to show that behavioral healthcare delivered through technology can reduce barriers to care and increase access to a broad range of treatment options and be effectively delivered to families in every clinical setting, regardless of where someone lives.”
About Array
Array Behavioral Care is the nation’s leading clinician-centric virtual psychiatry and therapy practice with a mission to transform access to quality, timely behavioral health care. Array offers telepsychiatry solutions and services across the continuum of care, from hospital to home, through its OnDemand, Scheduled and AtHome divisions. For more than 20 years, Array has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and health systems, community health care organizations and payers of all sizes to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underserved individuals, facilities and communities. As an industry pioneer and established thought leader, Array has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations. To learn more, visit www.arraybc.com.
In January 2022, The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in a proposed rule that it was soliciting feedback from the health care industry to better understand potential hurdles facing Medicare Advantage plans when trying to add behavioral health providers to their networks. Array CEO Geoffrey Boyce explains why a shortage of behavioral health professionals is only part of the problem and discusses the more complex factors in play. Read in Behavioral Health Business.
Why is behavioral health well suited to telehealth? And what are some of the biggest differences between an in-person and telebehavioral session? Array CEO Geoffrey Boyce explains to the American Journal of Managed Care how telehealth allows clinicians and patients to connect with one another in ways they wouldn’t in an in-office setting. Watch on AJMC.com.
When the nearest psychiatrist's office is dozens or even hundreds of miles away, a virtual connection may be enough to help people living with serious mental health conditions get effective care through their local primary care clinic, a new Journal of General Internal Medicine study shows. Array’s partnership to provide telebehavioral health services to Humana Medicare Advantage individual and group members nationwide in 2022 is part of a larger trend of using telehealth for behavioral care. Read the story in Healthcare Finance News.
Amid skyrocketing depression rates, Humana has expanded its behavioral health strategy to bring Array AtHome direct-to-patient behavioral telehealth to nearly five million Medicare Advantage members. Read more about how the partnership is making it easier for more Americans to get the behavioral healthcare they need faster. Read in Healthcare Finance News.
Array and Humana’s partnership, announced in January 2022, means Array’s clinicians will provide live psychiatry and therapy sessions via video to all of Humana's approximately 5 million Medicare Advantage members across the country. Array CEO Geoffrey Boyce joins the American Journal of Managed Care to explain how Array AtHome is building on clinical mental health care, not replacing it. Watch the video on AJMC.com.
