Melanie Brown-Woofter, CEO of the Florida Behavioral Health Association, is focusing on the expansion of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model in the state. Demand for the model, which provides prospective payments to CCBHC providers, is already in place, with 15 grant awardees in place and at least 30 more providers that applied for funding. The goal of achieving certification, Brown-Woofter says, is to strengthen care coordination for behavioral health and substance abuse services, which ultimately leads to better health outcomes and cost savings.
“Florida’s not a certification state yet, but we’re hoping to see that, so we will have the certification [for] Florida to adopt the model. It’s agnostic to payer. So, it can be a Medicaid service, it can be a state [general revenue] or [Department of Children and Families]-funded service, commercial plans can use it. It would be almost like a federally-qualified health center or another primary care designation.”