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Telehealth Optimizes Reach, Improves Outcomes for PHP, IOP Programs
An issue brief released on Wednesday by the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare (NABH) has added further evidence of the positive impact telehealth implementation has had on behavioral health care since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, the report, commissioned by NABH and developed by the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, shows that NABH members have indicated that using telehealth services has optimized the reach of their existing personnel and produced similar or better outcomes for partial hospital program (PHP) and intensive outpatient (IOP) patients relative to in-person care.
“When incorporating telehealth into existing PHP and IOP clinical protocols, physicians and other clinicians first ensured that patients received continuity of care that is safe and clinically appropriate,” NABH wrote in its issue brief. “Specifically, clinical protocols were adapted to add patient safety checks and escalation protocols in a remote environment during both intake and program delivery.”
>> READ NABH’s full issue brief on telehealth for PHP and IOP behavioral health care programs.
More than half of all telehealth-based services are related to behavioral health care and about half of all behavioral healthcare services are delivered via telehealth, the researchers noted.
NABH member research conducted for the study produced the following findings:
- Patient attendance and participation for PHP and IOP care was higher for telehealth-based services than for in-person delivery of care.
- Patient-reported clinical outcome scores showed similar symptom reduction and functional improvements when comparing in-person PHP and IOP patients and those receiving care via telehealth.
- Patient satisfaction measures were also found to be similar between the 2 patient groups.
“Given the perennial gaps between behavioral health care service needs and provider shortages, telehealth will continue to be essential in care delivery and improving access to both low-acuity behavioral health counseling and higher acuity services, such as those provided by PHPs and IOPs,” the researchers wrote. “NABH is concerned that without continued coverage and reimbursement for telehealth PHP and IOP services, access gains that were achieved through COVID-19 flexibilities will be lost.”
To prevent such a regression, NABH offered a series of recommendations, including the following:
- Reimbursement rates for telehealth PHP and IOP that are consistent with comparable in-person services;
- Permanent expansion of the types of covered practitioners eligible to furnish telehealth services;
- Making permanent the flexibilities on cross-state licensure for behavioral health and other clinicians that were enacted at the outset of COVID-19; and
- Development of quality measures for IOP, PHP, and other behavioral health services delivered via telehealth.
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