keyword: CoCM

Comparing Collaborative Care to Usual Care

Introduction:

Compared with usual care, Collaborative Care has been shown to improve the effectiveness of depression treatment and lower total healthcare costs. This handout outlines those differences using data from the IMPACT trial.

A printable PDF is available for download; however, please note that this document may not conform to the WCAG-2 accessibility standards.

Comparing Collaborative Care to Usual Care

The IMPACT (Improving Mood: Providing Access to Collaborative Treatment) trial focused on depressed, older adults. Half were randomly assigned to receive the depression treatment usually offered by participating clinics, and half were randomly assigned to receive collaborative care. Collaborative care more than doubled the effectiveness of depression treatment and reduced total healthcare costs at the same time (JAMA, 2002).

A bar graph titled "50% of Greater Improvement in Depression at 12 Months" compares the effectiveness of Usual Care and Collaborative Care across eight different clinics. The y-axis represents the percentage, ranging from 0% to 70%. The x-axis lists clinics numbered from 1 to 8. For each group, there are two bars: a green bar with diagonal stripes representing Usual Care and a solid blue bar representing Collaborative Care. In all groups, Collaborative Care shows higher percentages of improvement compared to Usual Care. A box around the bars above "7" points to text reading, "As part of usual care, patients at organization #7 were offered psychotherapy from master's-level clinicians co-located within the primary care clinic.

Usual Care

50% of study patients used antidepressants at the time of enrollment, but were still significantly depressed.

70% of usual care patients received medication therapy from their PCP and/or a referral to specialty behavioral health.

Only 20% of patients showed significant improvements after one year, which matches national data for depression treatment in primary care.

Collaborative Care

On average, twice as many patients significantly improved. The difference was statistically significant in all eight healthcare settings. Why?

  • Patient-Centered Team Care
  • Population-Based Care
  • Measurement-Based Treatment to Target
  • Evidence-Based Care
  • Accountable Care

Behavioral Health Integration Services Fact Sheet

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have an updated fact sheet detailing codes that can be used to bill for behavioral health integration (BHI) and Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) services.

Pediatric Collaborative Care Implementation Guide

This guide is for multi-disciplinary, primary care teams seeking to improve care access and behavioral health outcomes for children and adolescents through implementing Collaborative Care. Centered around the core principles of Collaborative Care, this guide serves as a roadmap to healthcare leaders, managers, clinicians, and staff in primary care as they:

  • start a new Collaborative Care program, or
  • expand an existing integrated care or Collaborative Care program to pediatrics, and/or
  • partner with community and behavioral health agencies.

For training support and technical assistance implementing Pediatric Collaborative Care reach out to the AIMS Center at: uwaims@uw.edu. Research has shown that clinics receiving implementation support from the AIMS Center have significantly better patient outcomes.

Guidance on Verbal Patient Consent and CoCM

Ensuring that a patient understands the Collaborative Care (CoCM) program before agreeing to participate is a crucial task for primary care providers. This resource provides general guidance on obtaining verbal consent from patients to participate in CoCM. Please note that these are general tips and that specific consent requirements may vary by state and patient insurance.