ABHW names Alera Health as inaugural policy partner

The Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW) and Alera Health announced a strategic partnership to accelerate adoption of innovative payment models that promote access to high‐quality, evidence‐based care for people with a primary or secondary behavioral health disorder, an ABHW news release stated. As an extension to managed care, Clinically Integrated Networks assemble diverse networks of service providers who are incentivized under pay‐for‐performance models to improve health outcomes and lower unnecessary health care costs. People with behavioral health and co‐occurring medical disorders frequently encounter barriers to engaging in complex outpatient care, leading to health care costs five to six times higher than average and an alarming reduction in life expectancy of 27 years. “ABHW has long supported value‐based contracting and the shared accountability of a Clinically Integrated Network as a pathway to whole‐person care,” Debbie Witchey, ABHW president and CEO, stated in the release. “Our managed care organizations have decades of experience in population health, and we look forward to the opportunity to learn from Alera Health and its ONEcare Networks through dialogue and collaboration focused on improving health outcomes.” Alera Health's ONEcare Networks bring together behavioral health, medical and social care organizations to improve health outcomes by facilitating data‐sharing, coordinating care and expanding the use of evidence‐based practices. ONEcare networks are established across the United States with over 200 provider organizations, employing 35,000 behavioral and medical clinicians who support over 4 million health care consumers, including roughly 450,000 with severe mental illness. In 2024, ONEcare networks nationwide reduced inpatient utilization by over 350,000 bed days and reduced medical spending by roughly 10.6%.