The connection between behavioral health and physical health is well-documented. Physical health is greatly affected by such behaviors as smoking, substance abuse, poor diet, lack of exercise, insufficient sleep and more. In addition, mental health issues and social determinants of health, such as lack of housing or transportation, language barriers, and food insecurity, impact health.
Primary care physicians are well aware of these problems, but often are unable to do anything about them due to a lack of resources. These issues are particularly pronounced in underserved populations, such as rural Americans, for whom behavioral health support and services either are unavailable or not integrated with their primary care.
Lynn Carroll is COO and head of strategy at HSBlox, a value-based care administration, payments and invoicing, and communication and engagement technology and services company. Among his successful launches: enterprise systems for premium invoicing and collection, digital payments, patient financial engagement, prospective bundled payments, and value-based contract administration.