One crisis care company is focused on making value-based care work.
Laura Buckley, COO of Connections Health Solutions, told Becker’s the crisis behavioral health provider’s top priority this year is expanding existing capitated arrangements into more value-based care.
“The crisis stabilization services that we provide are for the highest-acuity patients, and we provide an improved patient experience and reduce costs for both the health and justice system,” Ms. Buckley said.
Phoenix-based Connections Health Solutions operates crisis behavioral health centers in Arizona, Washington, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Montana.
Connections Health Solutions cut spending on psychiatric inpatient hospitalizations in Maricopa County, Ariz., and reduced 30-day inpatient psychiatric admissions by 20%, according to the company’s “2025 Behavioral Health True Costs Report.”
“We’re in conversations with a lot of the national payers in the five states where we have operations to do value-based care — taking more risk for behavioral health expenses, institutional behavioral health. We want to get to the point where we’re taking total cost of care risk,” Ms. Buckley said.
Another top priority for Connections Behavioral Health this year is implementing AI across the organization. The technology has helped speed up and streamline revenue cycle processes, Ms. Buckley said.
Now Connections is evaluating AI tools to enable dynamic staffing, and reduce administrative burden for providers, she said.
“We’re in the process of doing focus groups on what are the areas of biggest pain points among our providers, among our nurses, to make sure any solutions we select address the things that are big time drains for them, so they can focus on patient care,” Ms. Buckley said.
Connections Health Solutions is also expanding to fill gaps. The company is developing a centralized telehealth hub to augment staff at each of its centers, Ms. Buckley said. Connections is also building its own post-acute care program to bridge gaps after discharge from crisis care.
“We see the greatest opportunity for growth is simply increasing access to this type of care for everyone who needs it,” Ms. Buckley said. “We know from talking for years with so many different stakeholders that nearly every county in the country needs this support. Hospitals, first responders and communities are desperate for relief.”
This value extends to payers, too, Ms. Buckley said.
“Through value-based care, we are able to dramatically decrease spend and improve patient outcomes,” she said.
