State Approaches for Integrating Behavioral Health into Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations

States are developing accountable care organizations (ACOs) for their Medicaid populations to target health care costs and improve health care quality by better coordinating care for high-need, high-cost patients and reducing inappropriate inpatient and emergency department visits. Many high-need, high-cost Medicaid patients have mental health and substance use issues and are often not well-served in the current fragmented health care system. In response, states are increasingly looking to integrate behavioral health into their Medicaid ACO programs to help move the needle on cost and quality. This technical assistance tool examines four broad strategies states can use to integrate behavioral health services into ACOs.