A managed care company is testing a new behavioral health assessment and treatment program to see if it helps primary care physicians diagnose and treat mental health and substance abuse disorders in their patients. If a physician suspects that a patient may be suffering from depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse or some other behavioral health condition, the physician dials a telephone number linked to the behavioral health assessment computer program. While the physician is seeing other patients, the patient uses a telephone keypad to answer a series of questions that evaluates his or her symptoms. The computer program analyzes the patient's answers and faxes or e-mails the results, like a lab result, to the physician within 10 minutes. The results include a diagnosis and recommended treatment options.
Patients then complete follow-up assessments every month or so to track their treatment progress.
It is based on a behavioral health diagnostic system called OQ45, which was developed by University of Utah researchers in Salt Lake City, said Dr. Brody. He pointed out that another insurer is also planning to try out the program. They cause an enormous amount of dysfunction and morbidity. Despite the prevalence of mental health disorders among primary care patients, Dr. Lazarus estimates that only one-third of primary care doctors are proficient at routinely diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. Roughly another third do a fair to adequate job of diagnosing and treating behavioral health problems, he said, and the remaining one-third fail to routinely diagnose behavioral health issues or aren't interested in treating such problems.