Biden’s Mental Health Strategy Fits Insurers’ ‘Whole Person’ Wheelhouse – Forbes

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 01: US President Joe Biden arrives to deliver the State of the Union address … [+] as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) look on during a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol House Chamber on March 1, 2022 in Washington, DC. During his first State of the Union address, President Joe Biden was expected to speak on his administration’s efforts to lead a global response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, work to curb inflation, and bring the country out of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Saul Loeb – Pool/Getty Images)

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President Joe Biden’s proposal to invest more in mental health should compliment an effort by health insurers to integrate behavioral care with medical treatment.

Biden’s proposal includes money to encourage more Americans to enter behavioral health professions and alleviate a shortage of such providers through loans and scholarships. And more broadly, it focuses policymakers, Congress and the healthcare industry on ways to improve mental health care and make it a priority.

“Let’s take on mental health,” Biden said during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Biden’s mental health strategy released Tuesday is designed to “strengthen system capacity, connect more Americans to care, and create a continuum of support –transforming our health and social services infrastructure to address mental health holistically and equitably.”

Increasingly, health insurance companies have been working on ways to package their medical benefits with mental health offerings. Exactly how much of Biden’s strategy will result in legislation that becomes law remains to be seen but the strategy fits some major efforts under way by health insurance companies and big providers of medical care.

As one example, UnitedHealth Group chief executive officer Andrew Witty has said UnitedHealth’s health insurance business and Optum medical care provider businesses are increasingly working together to address mental health issues of health plan members.

“How can we bring together behavioral to medical,” Witty said in December during the Forbes Healthcare Summit. “It’s a slightly odd phenomena that the system treats the brain as if it’s not connected to the body in terms of how we govern for it. How do we think about connecting the virtual to the physical.”

The effort to integrate medical care services and behavioral healthcare offerings has long been a part of Cigna chief executive officer David Cordani’s business strategy as well as the efforts of executives at Anthem, CVS Health and Humana.

The health insurance lobby Tuesday night issued a statement praising Biden’s

“call for action to improve access to quality behavioral health care for all Americans, particularly among under-represented and underserved communities.”

“We need more innovative collaborations and solutions with providers and communities to address this complex issue, including more programs to encourage more behavioral health care providers, and to integrate behavioral and physical health care in the doctor’s office,” said Matt Eyles, president and chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). â€œWe strongly support parity in coverage for physical and behavioral health needs, expanded access to telehealth services, and driving value-based care arrangements that include behavioral health providers and services. We will continue to engage with Congress and the Administration on additional solutions that Americans need now to improve behavioral health care for children, adolescents and adults.”

“And let’s get all Americans the mental health services they need,” Biden said during his State of the Union address Tuesday night. “More people they can turn to for help and full parity between physical and mental healthcare