Two weeks ago, 40+ healthcare leaders and employees gathered in NeuroFlow’s office for an intimate, two-day event that brought together leaders across payors, health systems, and government organizations leveraging NeuroFlow’s technology in unique ways to support their programs and populations.

The Bridging the Gap summit provided useful strategies and tactics to help customers utilize NeuroFlow to its full potential, previewed NeuroFlow’s product roadmap, and most importantly, encouraged customers to connect and learn from one another. Executives from Magellan Healthcare, The Villages, Ascension, and Atlantic Health System shared their insights and success stories in engaging panel discussions. We heard inspiring words from an incredible Philadelphia sports legend and cheered on the playoff-bound Philadelphia Phillies. Read on for top takeaways from Bridging the Gap! 

1. To Overcome Massive Healthcare Gaps, Organizations Must Innovate

During a fireside chat with NeuroFlow’s Chief Product Officer Julia Kastner, Magellan Health’s Chief Medical Officer and President of Behavioral Health Dr. Caroline Carney articulated a theme we heard throughout the summit: “The gap between the providers who can provide behavioral health services and the people seeking services is getting wider,” despite the growing recognition of the mental health crisis. Due to a host of factors—widespread provider burnout, growing behavioral health risk after COVID-19, expanding administrative burdens—it remains incredibly challenging for organizations to support their patients, members, or employees’ behavioral health, said Dr. Carney. 

NeuroFlow Chief Product Officer Julia Kastner (left) interviews Dr. Caroline Carney (right), Magellan Health’s Chief Medical Officer and President of Behavioral Health.

NeuroFlow CEO Chris Molaro touched on this same theme during his keynote speech, articulating the company’s mission and vision. “The mental health gap is not going to be solved by any one person or organization,” said Molaro. “It’s going to be solved by groups collaborating and problem solving together.” This is not only the mission of the Bridging the Gap summit, Molaro added, but NeuroFlow’s mission as an organization. By bringing together NeuroFlow customers and partners, we can innovate to address the mental health crisis and save lives.

2. Understanding Population Risk to Reduce High-Cost Utilization

Throughout the summit, attendees and panelists emphasized the need to understand population health data to implement effective behavioral health programs and improve outcomes. In a panel highlighting NeuroFlow’s product roadmap, NeuroFlow Chief Commercial Officer Robert Capobianco explained how leveraging and analyzing claims data to understand population risk is paramount to this effort. Combining this claims data with real-time insights through a platform like NeuroFlow can help organizations better identify and risk stratify the populations they serve. With greater insight into these patterns and trends, organizations can move upstream to help members before they utilize costly services.

NeuroFlow Chief Commercial Officer Robert Capobianco explains why identifying rising and high risk members is critical for reimbursement.

Increasingly, explained Capobianco, NeuroFlow’s technology integrates with claims data platforms, layers in real-time insights from NeuroFlow, and analyzes these trends in an automated way. This rich analysis provides both payors and providers with a full picture of population risk.

3. Provider Buy-In Means Reigniting Their Passion

While many providers recognize the positive impact of behavioral health integration, they can feel overwhelmed and are wary of adding additional steps or technology to their workflow. Earning provider buy-in for these programs was a common challenge we heard at the summit.

To better engage providers, Dr. Jim Barr, VP of Physician Value-Based Programs and CMO of ACOs at Atlantic Health System, recommended speaking to providers’ sense of purpose. “NeuroFlow can support these patients and save their lives,” said Dr. Barr. “If you can get back to that emotion— ‘This is going to help you get back to your calling and make a difference’—then you can reach providers. You can talk about other efficiencies and cost savings, but you need to grab them emotionally. Speak to their passion and compassion. Make it real.”

Speakers also suggested that leaders communicate clearly about how integrated behavioral health programs can help providers do their jobs better. Explain that they will receive more support from psychiatric consults and care managers to deliver this much needed care to their patients. That enables providers to focus their limited time and energy on physical health needs, while still being able to track patients’ behavioral health. 

4. Building Trust Is Critical for Shifting Towards Value-Based Care

BCollaborative CEO Lili Brillstein (a recent guest on our interview series) spoke with NeuroFlow’s Director of Clinical Strategy and Growth Amanda Brooks during day two of the summit about how health systems can adopt greater risk and move toward value-based arrangements. Lili’s biggest piece of advice: build trust between key stakeholders. “I don’t want to suggest that it’s easy or that it’s fast,” said Brillstein, “It takes an investment of time and respect.”

Critically, if technology providers can share data with providers about the impact of value-based care on care quality, and share with health plans how these arrangements impact costs, both stakeholders will be willing to commit to the model. “NeuroFlow is a great connector,” said Brillstein. “Identifying the individuals within the population who have different levels of acuity is really critical to the success of these models.”

5. Digging into the Data Is Central to Success

Last but certainly not least, access to relevant data to inform better decisions and drive improved outcomes underscored nearly every discussion at the summit. NeuroFlow Chief Technology Officer Jeff Burk compared data to oil: “Oil is a resource we all need. It’s hard to get to, and it’s hard to extract and make use of, but it’s all around us.” He explained that NeuroFlow is investing heavily in infrastructure to better connect multiple data sources to enrich insights about population wellbeing and the impact of customers’ programs.

Christina Fixari, Senior Director of Behavioral Health at Ascension, added that without NeuroFlow monitoring patients and integrating these insights into Ascension’s EHR, they wouldn’t have key behavioral health insights needed to support their patients. “NeuroFlow is giving us access to robust data analytics. We can see data around adoption rates, patient progress, BHCM activity. I can’t see efficiencies to prove that our programs are doing better without NeuroFlow.”

Bridging the Gap Is Just Beginning

A big thanks to all our attendees and partners for making this inaugural summit one to remember. We’re excited about the future of our summits. As CEO Chris Molaro said in his keynote address, “Our goal is to create a community where we can keep in touch and support each other, and most importantly, save lives.” If you’d like to join this community and stay up to date on the latest behavioral health news and innovations, follow us on LinkedIn.

Related posts:

Bridging the Gap: The Evolution of Behavioral Health in the Veteran Community Bridging the Gap: A New Standard of Care for Supporting Suicidal Patients Bridging the Gap in Primary Care: Behavioral Health Integration Best Practices Bridging the Gap: Behavioral Health in Black and African American Communities