An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows how an entrepreneurial approach can produce a healthy bottom line and increased access to mental health services. Click here to read “Rising need for mental health care spurs growth in Rogers Behavioral Health System.”
Rogers Behavioral Health System provides care to more than 11,000 people a year, including more than 10,000 in the Milwaukee area. In the past five years, the system’s revenue has doubled. It is continuing to expand its services and geographic reach.
Here are key excerpts from the article by Guy Boulton.
“Its recent growth stems partly from changes in federal laws that require health insurers to provide the same benefits for behavioral health as for other medical care.
It also is driven by the increasing acceptance that behavioral health conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder, are no different than other medical conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease.
That has helped lessen the stigma long associated with mental illness, resulting in more people seeking treatment. More effective treatments also have contributed to the increase in demand for behavioral health care.”
Although Rogers Behavioral Health had been criticized for treating few patients covered by Medicaid, about one-third of its patients now are funded through Medicaid. It also helps fill the urgent need for in-patient psychiatric beds. An average of 500 patients a year are sent to the system when Milwaukee County’s hospital is at capacity.