From Medicaid provisions under H.R. 1 to funding streams for models that remain uncertain, behavioral health leaders are trying to build for the future while the ground keeps shifting under them in 2026. Becker’s asked 11 health system and payer…
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AI is moving from pilot project to daily reality across behavioral healthcare. Systems are using it to ease documentation burden, train crisis-response staff and flag patients at risk of relapse. On the other hand, regulators, unions and clinicians are pushing…
Nevada reduced the percentage of children with behavioral health disabilities placed in psychiatric residential treatment facilities from 35% to 16% since January 2025, The Nevada Independent reported Aug. 13. The decline comes as the state works to comply with a…
Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health is approaching behavioral health access challenges by first addressing one quality concern in particular: whether patients are actually getting better. That’s the premise behind the health system’s push to embed measurement-based care across its behavioral…
Massachusetts is moving to restrict kratom sales statewide after Department of Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, MD, PhD, issued an emergency order temporarily placing all forms of the substance into Schedule I under Massachusetts law. The restriction will take effect…
Consider the arc. Paper charts gave way to electronic records, and electronic records got rich enough that data stopped being scarce. What did not change is that the work between departments still moves at the speed of someone remembering to…
Sep 9, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT
Presented by:
Presenters:
- Sarah Galyon
- William A. Conrad, MD
Many finance teams have already pointed AI at the routine work — accelerating analysis, automating mundane tasks. While that progress is meaningful, it is also the smaller opportunity. The larger change is where finance spends its attention. When emerging trends…
Sep 29, 2026 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT
Presented by:
Presenters:
- Frank Stevens, Chief Product Officer, Strata
- Josh Wiggins, Vice President of Product Management, Strata
Financial instability can predict a patient’s recovery as powerfully as medication adherence. Healthcare organizations rarely treat it that way. Financial well-being is not adjacent to patient care. It is embedded in it. A serious illness or a forced early retirement…
Sep 16, 2026 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT
Presented by:
Presenters:
- Surya Kolluri, Senior Vice President, Head of, TIAA Institute
- Marti DiLiema, Gerontologist and Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota School of Social Work
- Colin M. Pierce, CFP ®, CRPC ®, Senior Managing Director, Head of Healthcare Practice, TIAA Retirement Solutions
AI is already reshaping behavioral health care, from clinical documentation and scheduling to workforce and operational decisions. But as adoption accelerates, so do the stakes: patient privacy, informed consent, clinical oversight and the therapeutic relationship itself. The organizations getting this…
Sep 16, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT
Presented by:
Presenters:
- Patricia Sylve, LPC-S, LCSW, Field Director, Behavioral Healthcare & Human Services Program Accreditation & Certification Operations, Joint Commission
- Andrea Leigh Yates, MBA RN CCRN, Field Director, Disease Specific Care and Health Care Staffing Services Programs Accreditation and Certification Operations, Joint Commission
Access to mental healthcare remains out of reach for millions of Americans, with some states facing more severe shortages of mental health professionals than others, new federal data shows. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Health Workforce published…