"If the proof of the ultimate touchstones of services." This is the philosophy PEPS was created to information about preven- tion into practical tools that may be used to SAMHSA has just released the first This new publication can assist States, Each PEPS guideline is based on Recognizing that there are many target U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES • Center for Substance Abuse Prevention approaches that best suit Six The panel examined the 1. Economic interventions; 2. Counteradvertising; interventions; 4. Multicomponent, school-linked, community 5. Tobacco-free environment 6. Restriction of • Center for Substance Abuse Treatment SAMHSA Measures Performance and Outcomes of Managed Care Treatment Measuring the success of treatment for mental and addictive disorders-often called behavioral health care- -is a problem that has confounded provision of services for these disorders for more than half a century. The history of behavioral health care has been marked by confusion, misunderstanding, and stigmatization concerning the causes of these disorders, as well as disagreements over appropriate treatment and definitions of recovery. The rapid growth of managed care as a means to control costs and improve the quality of services has escalated the need for accurate and widely accepted ways to measure both the performance of service delivery and the treatment outcomes resulting from services provided. Managed care has had an impact on all stakeholders: consumers of services and their families who may be faced with a change in provider or in services offered; service providers who may find their clinical decisions modified based on financial considerations; and health care payers such as private companies and State agencies that are called upon to be active purchasers by comparing and assessing competing plans. In response to this need for standardized measures, SAMHSA has initiated several significant activities to try to assist the field. In the vanguard of these efforts is the MHSIP Consumer-Oriented Mental Health Report Card, released by SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) in 1996. The Report Card grew out of the work of a special task force convened by the CMHS Mental Health Statistics Improvement Program (MHSIP). MHSIP is a voluntary network of providers, advisory groups, associations, State agencies, and consumers that assists CMHS in collecting Center for Mental Health Services MHSIP Consumer-Oriented Report Card HAWAII LEGEND: Highlighted States are using the MHSIP Report PUERTO RICO Card goes beyond this. According to Ronald W. Manderscheid, Ph.D., who coordinated the development of the Report Card and serves as Chief of the Survey and Analysis Branch within the CMHS Division of State and Community Systems Development, "A primary challenge is to move the managed health care field from competition based on price to competition based on quality." If behavioral health care services are to be viable in the long run, he says, independent measures of value must be developed. If key stakeholders have access to a valid assessment of quality of service and measures of positive outcomes, they can justify the financial investment that needs to be made in behavioral health care services. Payers will be more willing to cover the costs of mental health services when concrete outcomes are measured and reported. "Unless we are successful in these endeavors," says Dr. Manderscheid, "the field runs the risk that progressively |