Mental health paraprofessionals are important for helping to provide services, reduce costs, and address workforce shortages. Different subspecialities of paraprofessionals have different certification requirements that vary greatly by state and limit their scope of practice. This report describes a study that analyzed the data on requirements to become a certified behavioral health paraprofessional in each…
Behavioral health disorders have a wide range of treatments, however, recently there has been growing use of peer providers with lived experiences of mental health and substance use for the prevention and treatment of these disorders. Peers are effective providers of behavioral health treatment who encourage recovery through resilience building, empowerment, and self-advocacy. There remains…
Barriers to accessing behavioral health services exist across the country and create a demand for innovative service delivery, including telebehavioral health services. Behavioral health providers have increasingly adopted telebehavioral health services in recent years but the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a rapid transition to the virtual space. To better understand behavioral health workforce development opportunities…
The behavioral health workforce is currently experiencing a shortage of providers across the United States. This workforce shortfall has likely been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, though it is currently unclear how policy changes and systems-level factors within behavioral health care will impact workforce capacity. This report investigates systems-level factors and service delivery following COVID-19-related…
Buprenorphine is shown to be an effective medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder. It promotes long-term recovery and decreases the risk of mortality. Although Medicaid programs largely cover buprenorphine products, many continue to apply prior authorization (PA) requirements. This report studies how state Medicaid programs apply PA requirements to buprenorphine products.
Medicaid is the largest single payer for behavioral health services, and managed care is the predominant delivery system for Medicaid enrollees. However, states have the flexibility to decide if behavioral health providers and their services are reimbursable and subject to same-day billing restrictions. The state-specific nature of the Medicaid program, overwhelming use of managed care…
There is demonstrated evidence that medications used for treating opioid use disorder (MOUD)—such as buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone—are effective at treating opioid use disorder (OUD) and reducing associated harms. However, these medications are heavily underutilized, largely due to the under-supply of providers trained and willing to prescribe the medications. This article discusses physicians’ comparative…
Child and adolescent psychologists are important for the mental health development of these groups. However, little is known about the supply of psychologists who have the right training to meet the mental health needs of children and adolescents. This report describes a study that analyzed multiple sources of data on child and adolescent psychologists to…
Many healthcare organizations are rethinking provider roles and responsibilities to help their workforce best serve the needs of their patients. At the same time, regulations at the state and organizational levels restrict providers scope of practice. This article discusses potential adjustments to scope of practice regulations to allow healthcare organizations to provide the best possible…
Rural communities have some of the largest need for behavioral health care providers and yet the lowest availability. This is reflected in the fact that more than 60% of rural Americans live in a mental Health Professional Shortage Area, and more than 90% of psychologists and psychiatrists and 80% of social workers practice exclusively in…
