Page 7 – Bamboo Health

Bamboo Health Named Finalist in UCSF Digital Health Awards

Posted on November 22, 2022September 27, 2023 by [email protected]

We were honored that Bamboo Health was a finalist in the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Digital Health Awards in the Mental & Behavioral Health category for our Crisis Management System! UCSF celebrated all of the finalists at an awards ceremony at #HLTH2022 on Monday, Nov. 14 in Las Vegas. Bamboo Health sent a team of representatives to the event which recognized dozens of companies doing amazing things to improve healthcare across the country.

Bamboo Health submitted our Crisis Management System in the behavioral health category. Our solution connects crisis call center professionals, mobile response teams and treatment providers to expedite access to quality care for individuals in need of behavioral health treatment.

This year, Bamboo Health was chosen as one of four Best in Class finalists in this category, joined by Akili Interactive, Bicycle Health, and Papa. Congrats to Akili for winning the category. UCSF received more than 1,250 healthcare technology applications across 10 different categories. Submissions were judged by a panel of experts, including leaders from organizations such as Cleveland Clinic, Google Cloud, American Medical Association and UCSF.

In July, the nation rolled out the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which gave those in the US an easy-to-remember, three-digit number to call, text or chat when experiencing a mental health or substance use disorder crisis. Ahead of this, we launched our Crisis Management System solution, which has played a pivotal role in the rollout, ensuring each caller receives a proper and prompt response to their needs with its ability to deliver Real-Time Care Intelligence™ in the moments that matter.

The launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline comes at a time when many are in dire need of help. Statistics show that 1 in 4 people in the US has a mental health or substance use disorder (SUD). Further, emergency departments are overwhelmed by SUD and mental health-related visits, which account for roughly 1 in 8. As part of the crisis, an estimated 107,622 drug overdose deaths occurred during the past year.

Our Crisis Management System supports the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by providing a tool for staff to perform digital intake and assessment, and dispatch mobile crisis units to the individual, if necessary. The solution also provides staff visibility into available units, fosters communication between call centers and mobile crisis teams and tracks the team’s location to meet the patient wherever they are located.  Not only are crisis response teams better able to coordinate care, but state agencies are also able to assess, follow and manage an individual’s crisis journey from beginning to end, and quickly iterate crisis care delivery using Bamboo Health’s real-time insights.

It was an honor to be recognized as a finalist in the Mental & Behavioral Health category and we extend our congratulations to all the winners of this year’s UCSF Digital Health Awards!

To learn more about our Crisis Management System solution, please visit bamboohealth.com/solutions/crisis-management-system/.

Improving Member Access to Treatment & Reducing Costs with OpenBeds

Posted on November 21, 2022December 11, 2023 by Grace Keeling

Health plans are always striving to ensure their high-risk populations receive the appropriate care when they need it most. Many health plans aim to reduce unnecessary ED admissions and readmissions and improve their member access to community-based providers for post-discharge care and reduce the cost of care.

This commonly shared goal for health plans isn’t always as straightforward and attainable as they would like. There are several pain points that many health plans encounter that can make it difficult for members to access the treatment and resources needed for favorable member outcomes.

Some common issues health plans may encounter include:

Lack of transparency into member care, especially members entering care through the ED who miss follow-up appointments with a referring provider
Unnecessary ED boarding and readmissions for members with behavioral health disorders
Lack of awareness in member referrals needed for clear care transitions

The demand for member access to behavioral health care has hit a critical point in history. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a 50% increase in behavioral health conditions, and the U.S. spent $225 billion on mental health treatment in one year. The increase in behavioral healthcare treatment has resulted in increased costs for health plans, as members with high mental health costs incur over 30% more costs than other high-cost members.

Today, health plans are looking for more ways to utilize technology to become better informed about member activities including referrals, time it takes for them to receive care, and how to reduce the overall cost of paying for member care for those who have behavioral health conditions.

Access to care coordination technology that centralizes treatment resources, improves the timeliness of quality care, and offers visibility into care transitions and reporting quality metrics can alleviate this burden. By utilizing technology solutions, health plans can reduce overall care costs, and most importantly, become more informed about the care of their members.

OpenBeds®, our behavioral health solution, offers the technology health plans need to improve care coordination for their members. With these specialized features, OpenBeds allows health plans to facilitate rapid transfers and referrals and foster collaboration among medical and behavioral health providers and substance use programs.

Here are some key benefits OpenBeds can offer to health plans and members:

Connection for behavioral health providers to a single referral management network that supports care collaboration among providers
Real-time alerts to care managers when members have an acute care event for accurate tracking and coordination of follow-up care
Simplified referral process that quickly and efficiently connects members to behavioral health treatment providers
Closed referral loops by alerting care managers when their referrals are accepted by an approved treating facility or outpatient provider
Added visibility and reporting for transitions of care and quality metrics, including HEDIS measures
Real-time insights into member utilization and provider process measures to monitor network performance

Under our trusted referral network, OpenBeds allows health plans to build and engage their own network of treatment facilities and providers. From referral to placement within minutes, members receive more timely treatment, providers experience reduced administrative burden, and health plans see lowered cost of care.

It takes a village to improve the state of behavioral health in the U.S. That’s why health plans play an integral role in helping individuals access the treatment they need, right when they need it. With OpenBeds, a comprehensive solution that closes referral loops and expedites behavioral health treatment placement, health plans can feel confident they are helping members in the best way they can.

If you’re interested in learning more about how your organization can benefit from OpenBeds, contact us today.

How Real-Time ADT Notifications Can Improve HHVBP Model Quality Measures

Posted on November 20, 2022December 11, 2023 by Grace Keeling

With the nationwide expansion of the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model (HHVBP) just months away, providers are actively working to sift through the regulatory change and its expected impact on the future of the home healthcare industry. Driven by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) efforts to improve home health agency (HHA) quality of care beneficiaries through payment incentives, the expanded HHVBP Model requires HHAs to compete on a set of quality measures related to the care that they provide.

According to CMS, under the expanded HHVBP Model, HHAs will receive adjustments to their Medicare fee-for-service payments based on their performance against a set of quality measures, relative to their peers’ performance. This means that performance on these quality measures in a specified year (performance year) will impact payment adjustments in a later year (payment year).

Set to be implemented nationwide on January 1, 2023, as the first full performance year, HHVBP will measure Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS)-based, claims-based, and Home Health Care Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) survey-based measure data. Information from the 2023 performance year will then be used to calculate an HHA’s Total Performance Score (TPS) and their payment adjustment amount for the first payment year in 2025. Participation in the expanded HHVBP Model is mandatory for all Medicare-certified HHAs with a CMS Certification number in the 50 States, District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. This includes home health agencies that are Medicare certified and receive payment from CMS for home healthcare services.

The countdown to the fast-approaching implementation date means that now is the time for participants to prepare for the model. For HHAs, the key to this preparation rests in their ability to improve their quality measures.

How to Improve Quality Measures Related to ED Utilization, Readmissions, and Post-Discharge Follow-Up

Bamboo Health can help HHAs succeed and adhere to the some of the new HHVBP measures with our real-time care intelligence solution, which provides ADT e-notifications to care providers in the moments that matter most. Bamboo Health’s Real-Time Care Intelligence™ helps HHAs scale how they manage patient populations, leading to better awareness and more complete care.

If a patient is admitted to a hospital, ED, or post-acute (I.e., skilled nursing facility, long-term acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facility, or hospice), providers for that patient will be notified immediately. Real-Time Care Intelligence not only helps to reduce ED admissions, but also improves post-discharge transitions and overall care coordination strategy.

Through what we call CareFlow™, the desired state of care coordination with the help of our solutions, helps HHA care teams foster continued patient engagement, the HHVBP model quality metrics. Here’s how Real-Time Care Intelligence can help your organization achieve success and compliance with the new HHVBP model:

1. Our solution helps your coordination upon discharge from HHA services to community services.

2. Your providers can utilize Pings to intervene at the ED to prevent IP admission and identify MVPs that may need different care to reduce the likelihood of readmission.

3. Our real-time notifications create the opportunity to show great improvement on HHCAHPS scores by bettering overall communication and coordination. Pings can allow HHA teams to be more proactive, quick, and informed with their outreach – creating better partnerships with health systems and improving continuity of care.

A home health, palliative, and hospice organization earned over $400,000 in revenue in just 5 months of using Pings to actively follow up with patients post-discharge.

Ahead of the January 1, 2023, deadline, Real-Time Care Intelligence can play a vital role in helping home health model participants be aware of moments that matter such as ED presentations as they occur, reduce admissions, and improve care coordination overall – a critical aspect for improving quality measures and enabling success under the expanded HHVBP Model.

“We care for elderly, frail, and homebound patients via house calls. Locating these patients through Pings, and having the opportunity to coordinate care upon discharge, is critically important. Pings has increased the amount of information had on our patients tenfold, which allows us to identify and manage our high-utilizing patients.”
VP of Visiting Physician Services, Visiting Nurse Association Health Group

If you’re interested in learning more about how Pings can help HHAs improve quality metrics, contact us to get started.

A 988 IT Infrastructure Conversation with Bamboo Health’s Carol Tsang

Posted on September 28, 2022February 26, 2024 by Grace Keeling

As we near the two-month anniversary of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launch, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that state infrastructure readiness is a marathon, not a sprint. This means that no two states or geographies will prepare for the compliance with the behavioral health initiative on the same exact timeline or in the same exact manner. To address the infrastructure elements required to address the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline most effectively, we sat down with Bamboo Health Senior Product Manager Carol Tsang to discuss the purpose-built tools and technologies that are available today to help states support their crisis management infrastructures.

Let’s start off by talking a little bit about your position at Bamboo Health and your journey to your current role.

I’ve been at Bamboo Health for about a year, but I’ve been building innovative tools and products to solve complex problems in a range of industries for about 15 years. My experience spans everything from finance to HR; the latter being a market where I’ve spent the most time. It’s in these types of product development positions where you are really afforded an opportunity to see the importance of what you are creating up front. This especially rings true in healthcare. The healthcare industry provides the opportunity to impact and change the lives of so many, which is the most exciting part of my work at Bamboo Health.

It’s been about two months since the 988 launch, and in terms of call volume, people are really beginning to utilize the offering to connect to behavioral health resources during their time in need. But at the state level, there is also the reality that not every geography has the same or is afforded the same resources to help support the demand right off the bat. Some are obviously a lot further ahead than others. What type of infrastructure or interoperability challenges do you feel some states might face at this stage of the roll-out?

To your point, different states are at various stages of maturity in terms of their crisis program preparedness. There are states who have never implemented statewide crisis management until now, and there are states who organically started the process by deploying crisis management tools even before 988 undertaking became a reality.

Because of these various degrees of maturity around the initiative, every state is depending on different tools and services to support their 988 efforts. These uniformity variations are often further exacerbated within each state, where organizations and agencies vary based upon region.

As states continue to move forward with their 988 rollouts, this means that the ability to consolidate and share patient information between these different technology platforms is going to be one of the biggest problems that we’ll continue to see. To effectively address this challenge, we will need greater interoperability and real-time care coordination between crisis management stakeholders to help individuals access expedited behavioral health crisis assessment and treatment.

Is there anything that you feel like all 50 states pretty much had covered in terms of preparedness?

At this stage, most states have an operator in place at crisis call centers to pick up the phone when the 988 call comes in. This is a promising first step, as a call center representative who’s available to talk with someone facing a behavioral health challenge is the key to success. In fact, it’s estimated that 75-80% of incoming calls can be deescalated by call center representatives.

For the rest of the incoming calls, however, operators should have access to additional resources such as the ability to dispatch mobile crisis teams and ensure callers get connected to the proper care when the need it most. Call center representatives should also be able to easily refer callers to inpatient and outpatient treatment facilities to get them the necessary care. Unfortunately, this back-end support varies greatly depending on each state’s crisis management infrastructure.

We’ve talked a lot about the behavioral health crisis at hand and infrastructure readiness at the state level. Let’s chat about Bamboo Health and the technology resources your team has purpose-built to support behavioral health initiatives.

At the core of our behavioral health IT portfolio is OpenBeds®, a solution which creates trusted, coordinated care treatment networks that can essentially act as a doorway into the referral system. To date, OpenBeds is in 14 states, and that number is growing. Bamboo Health’s footprint overall is large, and we really are the only healthcare organization offering a product of this caliber.

We also recently announced the launch of our Crisis Management System, which is built on OpenBeds and supports these crisis call centers at the regional level. This is accomplished by coordinating surges in 988 call volume when needed and expediting access to definitive assessment and treatment for those in crisis. It allows crisis call center staff to perform digital intake and assessment, as well as dispatch mobile crisis units, when necessary, to the individual in need. What I’m especially excited about is that through the Crisis Management System, state crisis response teams can now assess, follow, and manage an individual’s crisis journey from start to finish, and quickly iterate crisis care delivery using real-time data.

Why would you say Bamboo Health is an ideal technology partner?

For states looking for a 988 technology partner, Bamboo Health is an increasingly attractive option because we have people in the trenches who are already using our system today and they are successful. This means that states don’t need to wait months, or even years, to develop these capabilities. We have both the ability to jump in and start having an impact straight away and we also have a lot of experience working at the state-by-state level, with the ability to tailor our offerings to meet state-specific nuances and requirements.

You mentioned at the beginning of the call that working at Bamboo Health gives you the opportunity to make an impact. What are you most optimistic about when it comes to 988?

Let’s look at 911 for example. I don’t know if I’ve ever called 911, but it’s a number I know. It’s a number you don’t even have to think about, and you know exactly what that resource is when there’s an emergency. This is not currently the case with a behavioral health crisis.

As a result, when it comes to 988, I am most optimistic about its ability to shine a light on the crisis response in our country. Previously there were states who were more mature in the process, and they had hotline numbers and resources that you could call if you were facing a crisis. But it always seemed like a ‘nice to have resource’ versus a support system that should be front and center.

I’m looking forward to seeing elevated attention being paid to the crisis issue as well as awareness of resources to help. And, personally, I find myself being an ambassador for 988. While it’s not part of my formal job description, it’s exciting to be able to speak to it because now there is a place at the podium to talk about how our country addresses behavioral health needs.

Any advice you want to share for states looking to elevate how they are responding to the 988 mandate?

I think it’s important for states to remember that at the end of the day every government is going to approach 988 infrastructure readiness in their own way. They need to figure out what works best for their state from a financial as well as resource allocation perspective. As they look to navigate their behavioral health care coordination efforts in the months ahead, Bamboo Health is here to help!

For Additional Information

If you would like to learn more about 988 or how Bamboo Health can help support infrastructure development efforts for the national behavioral health lifeline, please check out our crisis management playbook.

What Is Whole-Person Care?

Posted on September 13, 2022March 27, 2025 by Jaime Conlan

True wellness requires a comprehensive, whole-person care approach. For clinicians to truly support the comprehensive health needs of individuals in their care, organizations from across the healthcare continuum must come together to overcome barriers to physical and behavioral healthcare access. Only then can providers, patients, community resources, health plans, government healthcare agencies and other entities break down silos across the healthcare industry to access more cohesive care insights and improve outcomes.

What Is Whole-Person Care?

In a nutshell, whole-person care refers to holistic care for the whole-person rather than isolating a single health challenge or diagnosis. Care teams with a whole-person care approach look at both body and mind in developing attainable, effective care plans to ultimately create a better life for everyone experiencing physical and behavioral health disorders. It acknowledges that health outcomes depend on the intersection of many different factors, such as an individual’s specific health history, genetics, environmental factors and socioeconomic status. This patient-centered approach leverages a wide range of resources to provide seamless, high-quality and effective care.

Some of the resources often used in whole-person care include behavioral health integrations, coordination with other providers, like long-term care facilities and home health services, and additional services like peer support and non-emergency transportation.

To deliver these services and communicate with many other entities, healthcare organizations must enlist strong care coordination efforts with Real-Time Care Intelligence™ to provide actionable insights during pivotal care moments.

How Does Whole-Person Care Help?

One of the major benefits of whole-person care is its effects on high-risk, high-need populations and those dealing with multiple chronic conditions. For many people, these problems are entangled. Approximately 1 in 5 patients suffer from mental illness and substance use disorder (SUD), and many of these individuals have other physical health comorbidities that make it difficult to address without tackling underlying needs. Whole-person care takes a comprehensive approach to helping a patient overcome these issues.

On a larger scale, whole-person care supports population health overall. Data from whole-person care initiatives might reveal a community’s need for more SUD resources. Health systems can then focus on meeting that demand with rehabilitation clinics, support programs, provider collaboration tools and other relevant initiatives to improve access and reduce the cost of care. Expanding care to more people and meeting community needs can help improve population health and minimize costs overall.

The Role of Care Coordination

The need for specialized providers across the healthcare spectrum makes communication critical. Care coordination is vital in seamlessly connecting the people involved in whole-person and patient-centered care. The process of care coordination is all about delivering the most appropriate care in the moments it matters most. Different members of the care team should be able to stay on the same page with record sharing, patient alerts and resource visibility. With more streamlined care coordination tools, providers can:

Manage referrals to specialists and community partners to better facilitate transitions of care
Streamline case management by integrating systems to store information in one place
Assist in developing a proactive care plan and efficiently share critical information with other members of the care team
Establish accountability and continuity of care between providers and facilities
Stay compliant with regulations and laws
Support interoperability and integration with tools
Make personalized, evidence-based decisions

Consider how care coordination can help someone with multiple conditions. Let’s look at the example of Ruth, a 32-year-old who arrives at the emergency department (ED) due to a suspected substance overdose. Providers within hospitals and health systems can leverage care collaboration tools such as Bamboo Health’s prescription drug monitoring programs and Pings™ to determine Ruth’s previous history. The provider can then see that Ruth has been seen three times in last 90 days at other EDs for overdose and associated medical conditions, resulting in costly inpatient stays.

Along with detailed clinical history, providers can quickly search open bed boards via OpenBeds® at inpatient or outpatient behavioral health facilities, facilitate smooth care transitions and meet government reporting requirements. Knowing that Ruth could benefit from more appropriate long-term care outside of the ED setting, the provider can connect Ruth to longitudinal care with a streamlined referral process, ultimately helping improve patient outcomes and inpatient utilization. If another medical condition appears later on during another pivotal moment in Ruth’s care journey (such as if she were to make a call to the 988 Crisis Lifeline, need follow-up care or appear at the ED or a post-acute care facility), all care teams can access contextual details about treatment to streamline care and reduce costs.

To give other examples, pharmacies can also leverage prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to monitor controlled substance histories during dispensations. Health plans can help their members with care management by providing coverage for more wide-ranging services and promoting preventive care. Some can cover various behavioral health treatments and work with providers to provide whole-person care. Health plans can also encourage providers to adopt care coordination efforts and help process claims reviews closer to real-time.

Without strong care collaboration efforts, these daily processes become much more challenging. In a typical healthcare journey, an individual in need of care has many opportunities to experience the disjointed nature of working with multiple providers. Care coordination and whole-person care software and programs can streamline and simplify patient care. Providers can share information, even from disparate systems and documentation processes, and support patients in navigating a complicated network of providers, health plans and other resources.

Support Your Whole-Person Care Initiatives with Bamboo Health

If you’re looking for ways to improve whole-person care for your patients, you can connect to the most powerful care collaboration network in the country to leverage whole-person care insights and improve lives during pivotal care moments. Stay connected to other providers in Bamboo Health’s network and gather the complete picture of your patients’ health histories.

Bamboo Health empowers healthcare organizations to improve behavioral and physical health outcomes through the most powerful care collaboration network with Real-Time Care Intelligence™. By providing real-time insights during pivotal care moments, clients are enabled to perform life-improving actions and deliver seamless, high-quality and cost-effective whole-person healthcare. From coast to coast, Bamboo Health partners with all major retail pharmacy chains, 52 states and territories, 100% of the top 10 best hospitals and more than half of the country’s largest health plans to improve more than 1 billion patient encounters annually. Contact us today to learn more.

Top Takeaways from Our Past Five Webinars

Posted on August 25, 2022September 27, 2023 by Grace Keeling

At Bamboo Health, webinars are one of the most engaging ways we connect, educate, and spread the word about new advancements in the industry. Through the outreach of our webinars, attendees can come together to listen to today’s most important and pressing topics surrounding behavioral and physical health.

In addition to our monthly Knowledge for Good webinars, Bamboo Health team members have also shared their expertise in webinars hosted by a variety of media outlets.

Let’s look back at some of the key takeaways and best talking points from some past webinars led by the Bamboo Health team.

ACO Reach Model Requirements

During the Knowledge for Good Webinar on May 25, 2022, Government Affairs Manager Molly Kane discussed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model, launching on January 1, 2023.

This new program will replace the Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) Model and aims to improve care coordination and patient outcomes for Medicare members.

Molly discussed how organizations can ensure success and leverage interoperability during this transition by:

Maximizing revenue
- Beneficiary engagement tactics that support retention
- Processes to support maximizing quality scores
Maximizing shared savings
- Care management resources and processes to minimize avoidable utilization
- Beneficiary engagement tactics that support proactive preventative care