Boston, Mass., March 24, 2015 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has posted a new draft report, entitled “Integrating Behavioral Health into Primary Care,” for public comment. The report will be the subject of deliberation and vote at the next public meeting of the New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (CEPAC) on Friday, May 1, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. The report distills the latest evidence on the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of efforts to integrate behavioral health into primary care. It provides an analysis of the legal, regulatory, and financial landscape for behavioral health integration, and highlights key barriers as well as possible solutions for successful integration efforts as identified through interviews with over 30 stakeholders throughout New England and nationally. During the meeting on May 1, CEPAC will be joined by a Policy Roundtable of experts in the field of integration to discuss the implications of the report’s findings for policy and practice.
Written public comments will be accepted until 5PM ET on Tuesday, April 21, 2015. Please email all comments to info@icer-review.org. Anyone wishing to deliver an oral comment at the May 1 meeting should email info@icer-review.org by 5PM ET on Monday, April 27, 2015 to reserve a time. Availability of time slots for oral comment is limited, and slots will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis. More information on submitting public comments is available on the CEPAC website.
Meeting Details
Date: May 1, 2015
Time: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET
Location: The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center
Harvard Medical School
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur
Boston, MA 02115
The meeting is free and open to the public. Members of the public interested in attending the meeting can register here before April 30.
ICER produced a similar report tailored to the specific policy landscape of California that will form the basis of a meeting of CEPAC’s sister program, the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF) in Oakland, CA on April 2, 2015.
About CEPAC
The New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (CEPAC) is an independent, regional body of practicing physicians, methodological experts, and leaders in patient advocacy and engagement that provides objective, independent guidance on the application of medical evidence to clinical practice and payer policy decisions across New England.
Council members are elected for three-year terms, and represent a diversity of expertise and perspective; they are purposely not selected for expertise in the clinical topic under discussion in order to maintain the objectivity of the Council and to ground the conversation in the interpretation of the published evidence rather than anecdotal experience or expert opinion. Acknowledging that any judgment of evidence is strengthened by real life clinical and patient perspectives, CEPAC recruits subject matter experts for each meeting who provide input to Council members before the meeting to help clarify CEPAC’s understanding of the different interventions being analyzed in the evidence review. The same clinical experts serve as a resource to the Council during their public deliberation, and help form recommendations with CEPAC on ways the evidence can be applied to policy and practice.
Led by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, CEPAC is supported by a broad coalition of state Medicaid leaders, integrated provider groups, public and private payers and patient representatives. For more information on CEPAC, please visit cepac.icer-review.org.
About ICER
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is an independent non-profit health care research organization dedicated to improving the interpretation and application of evidence in the health care system. ICER directs two core programs: the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF), and the New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (CEPAC). For more information about ICER, please visit ICER’s website, www.icer-review.org.
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