More than one in five U.S. adults lives with at least one mental illness, making it perhaps the largest patient demographic in the world. Yes, behavioral health referral leakage remains a persistent problem for healthcare organizations.
Every day, providers encounter patients who would benefit from counseling, psychiatry, substance use treatment, or other behavioral health services. The intent is there, but referral completion rates are lagging.
Unfortunately, the referral gap for behavioral health can have a huge impact on patient outcomes. Here’s a closer look at behavioral health referral leakage and how you can achieve better care coordination with embedded solutions.
The Hidden Cost of Behavioral Health Referral Leakage
Every referral represents a patient who has already been identified as needing care. When that patient never reaches treatment, everyone loses.
Behavioral health referral leakage happens when a patient fails to connect with the intended provider after a referral is made. There can be several reasons why they don’t (or are unable to) follow through, including:
- Long wait times
- Difficulty scheduling appointments
- Out-of-network provider issues
- Poor communication between organizations
- Lost or incomplete referral documentation
- Patient disengagement
Behavioral health referrals often involve patients who are already experiencing a high degree of emotional distress, anxiety, or depression. Therefore, any friction can significantly decrease the odds of them following through with treatment.
A patient may seem committed to seeking care when you speak to them in the office. However, if their next appointment is not adequately arranged or the referral process stalls out, a behavioral health patient may become disengaged or lose interest in following through. This is one of the biggest sources of behavioral health referral leakage across the healthcare system.
The Referral Gap Is Larger Than Most Organizations Realize
Many provider organizations track referral volume but struggle to measure what happens after the referral leaves their system. Without adequate tracking capabilities, you will have difficulty determining which patients started treatment and how long it took them to do so.
The referral gap gets wider if your referrals rely on:
- Fax-based communication
- Manual data entry
- Phone tag
- Paper forms
- A disjointed referral tool
Without visibility into the referral process, you may assume that more patients are receiving the care they need, when many are not. This lack of transparency makes it hard to improve access and forecast growth, much less gauge the efficacy of your referral programs.
When you cannot see where referrals are stalling out, you cannot identify bottlenecks or improve patient engagement. The first step to plugging the leaks is to gain better visibility.
Why Behavioral Health Is So Different
Every specialty experiences referral friction, but behavioral health faces an uphill climb when attempting to get people connected with the services they need. Patients are hesitant for a variety of reasons, which may include:
- Stigma and fears of being judged
- Limited access to transportation
- Insurance limitations
- Fewer providers or appointment options
- Long waitlists
Each extra step you ask a behavioral health patient to take decreases the likelihood that they will follow through. Therefore, you need to do most of the legwork for them without bogging your providers down with a lengthy, tedious referral process. Manual processes and external tools are revenue killers. But there is a solution.
The Secret to Behavioral Health Provider Adoption
Physicians don’t want to leave the EHR. So instead of searching for ways to coax them into a new or secondary system, invest in an EHR-embedded referral workflow.
A referral solution that is embedded into your EHR enables providers to work within the system they know and prefer. Additionally, providers can avoid the friction associated with jumping between multiple apps and complete referrals with just a few clicks.
Explore What’s Possible With Arrowhealth
Arrowhealth offers an embedded referral solution that integrates with the leading EHR solutions. Our user-friendly platform can close the behavioral health referral gap while opening the door for stronger secondary revenue and better patient outcomes.
Want to see how Arrowhealth solves the referral problem and promotes greater access to behavioral health services? Request a demo to learn more.