IlliniCare Health Leads Effort to Integrate Mental and Physical Healthcare for Medicaid Beneficiaries

New initiative will support primary care providers and mental health providers in an effort to advance access to mental health care, improve patient outcomes

CHICAGO, IL – IlliniCare Health today announced a new initiative that will aim to support people with mental health conditions by further integrating mental and physical health care. Leveraging Quartet Health’s technology and services, IlliniCare Health will support mental health and primary care providers at the local level to help ensure members — including those with mental health conditions that have historically been unaddressed — get the right care at the right time.

This effort is an extension of IlliniCare Health’s commitment to focus on improving the health of the community by addressing the whole health of individuals, one patient at a time. IlliniCare Health is continually implementing its innovative strategy to address mental health and provide support for substance abuse disorders among Medicaid beneficiaries. With Quartet’s technology and services, IlliniCare Health will:

• Better identify members with mental health conditions. Primary care physicians and mental health providers will receive information through proprietary algorithms that will identify members with underlying mental health conditions.
• Connect members to personalized mental health care and treatment options. The partnership will offer providers resources to help them refer members to an extended network of trusted mental health providers and tools to help members with psychiatric and medication management needs.
• Build coordinated care teams. Primary care physicians and mental health providers get to collaborate with one another on treatment plans through Quartet’s easy-to-use HIPAA-compliant platform.

“At IlliniCare Health, we meet our members where they are in life and believe in treating the whole person, not just the physical body,” said Leslie Naamon, CEO of IlliniCare Health. “By working with Quartet, we are better connecting primary care and mental health care providers to our members, ensuring they receive the most informed, integrated care for their physical and mental health needs.”

Both IlliniCare Health and Quartet believe that mental health should be treated just like any other health condition. Collaborative care – an evidence-based model for integrating mental health treatment into primary care – is highly effective, both for improving total health outcomes and driving down health care costs.^[1]

“We know that mental health is a central part of community health,” said David Wennberg, MD, MPH, CEO of Quartet. “We are fortunate to partner with IlliniCare Health to help ensure that individuals with mental health conditions get the care they need.”

Traditionally, it can take months for a member to get an appointment with a psychiatrist or therapist. With more than 11,000 mental health and primary care providers working together on Quartet’s platform, 86 percent of those referred to a mental health provider are connected to care in less than two weeks, and most hear directly from a provider within 36 hours.

Quartet has already begun to outreach and engage IlliniCare Health’s network of providers. As the outreach efforts continue, mental health providers and primary care physicians can expect to be contacted by Quartet with more information on how to join the Quartet community.