Best Practices on Meeting CCBHC Quality Measure Requirements | Streamline Healthcare

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Best Practices for Meeting CCBHC Clinical Quality Measure Requirements

The momentum for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) got another boost this year when Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Five years into the launch of the first CCBHCs, organizations are becoming more adept at navigating the CCBHC requirements, but challenges remain, including meeting the required quality measures. 

Below are best practices for Behavioral Health and Human Services organizations on implementing some of the most common Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs).

Congress Approves Huge Boost to CCBHC Programs

The CCBHC demonstration program launched in 2017 with 66 clinics across eight demonstration states. As of early 2022, there were 430 CCBHCs in 42 states. Under the new Act, starting July 1, 2024, and every two years through 2030, up to 10 additional states may start participating in the demonstration programs. 

Mastering the 11 Most Common CCBHC Clinical Quality Measures

One of the requirements for CCBHCs is that they are required to collect and report on over 30 quality measures. In our recent CCBHC webinar, Streamline discussed best practices for managing 11 of the most common CQMs.

Best practices include the following:

  • Build Data Collection into Existing Workflows. Obviously, data collection is key to measuring quality. Building the collection of required data directly into existing workflows, vs having different workflows and measures just for CCBHC clients, makes this task much easier and more productive.
  • Understand the Logic of Each CQM. The logic for CQMs can vary, particularly in terms of the age of populations being served, which services count as an encounter, and the timeframes allowed for various encounters and measures. Knowing this logic is key to capturing the appropriate data for each CQM. 
  • Alert Staff to Clinical Action Items. To help staff to know when a client needs a particular action of care for a CQM, build alerts into the workflows. These alerts can be based on age, diagnosis, medications, completion of an Assessment triggering the need for another (like PHQ-9), and vitals data.

Streamline and SmartCare™

Streamline Healthcare Solutions’ SmartCare™ is a true enterprise EHR platform that enables behavioral health and human services organizations to meet CCBHC requirements. Among other things, SmartCare™ provides organizations with:

  • A high degree of interoperability on a single, Enterprise platform, including the ability for direct data entry by Designated Collaborating Organizations (DCOs).
  • Workflows that capture the CCBHC-required clinical measures for reporting as well as state-level measures, plus the capability to assess, stratify and define quality metrics—all built into the core platform.
  • Intelligent and flexible Revenue Cycle Management capabilities to help organizations generate, track, manage, and analyze their billing and financial information seamlessly across a variety of reimbursement methods and service and program types, including CCBHCs.

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