CCBHC’s Guide to Optimizing Technology for Comprehensive Care
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- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Using Software to Help Address Comprehensive Care Commitments
- Chapter 2 Digital Solutions for Enhancing Comprehensive Care Delivery
- Chapter 3 Innovative Advances to Upgrade Comprehensive Care Operations
- Chapter 4 Simplifying Comprehensive Care Quality Reporting and Outcomes
- Chapter 5 Implementing the Right EHR for Superior and Comprehensive Care
- Conclusion The Key to Effective, Comprehensive Carefor CCBHCs
Introduction
While mental and emotional health needs have historically been treated separately from physical conditions, providers have increasingly emphasized the importance of removing those silos in recent years. Emotional health, the medical community has come to realize, impacts physical health — and vice versa.
But as more people have sought care and client expectations have grown, gaps in existing care models have become apparent. To fill these gaps and provide the best possible service, more facilities are shifting to the certified community behavioral health clinic (CCBHC) model.
Representing what some argue is the gold standard for mental health and substance use treatment, these clinics partner with designated collaborating organizations (DCOs) — such as public schools, peer support services, law enforcement agencies, mobile units, and others — to facilitate integrated, cost-effective, and comprehensive care tailored to the specific needs of their communities.
Operating under strict service requirements and tasked with meeting high standards, CCBHCs need the right solutions to enable them to deliver on the model’s promises and provide the care clients need and deserve. In this guide, you’ll learn how advanced technologies can help your clinic support local communities, enhance care coordination, and more — all in service of more effective care delivery.
Using Software to Help Address Comprehensive Care Commitments

According to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, CCBHCs are currently serving more than 3 million clients nationwide — a figure that’s increasing as more clients and providers learn about and come to appreciate the value of this comprehensive care model.
These clinics not only facilitate care across a whole network; they must also abide by strict rules that govern quality and ensure that no one falls through the cracks, especially in commonly underserved populations. This requires CCBHCs to have integrated solutions for addressing client needs at every stage of their care journey.
Meeting CCBHC Requirements for Services Faster With an Advanced EHR
Providers and staff are critical to any behavioral health facility, but to meet the nine CCBHC requirements, those individuals need efficient workflows and quality reporting solutions. An advanced electronic health record (EHR) can help optimize these areas — and many more — to enable CCBHCs to deliver the essential services they’re responsible for.
The 9 Required CCBHC Services — and Technology That Can Bolster Them
CCBHC requirements are set to help clinics minimize barriers to access and reduce care disparities. But they also demand a lot from clinicians and staff. Here’s a look at the nine CCBHC requirements and how the right technological infrastructure can support clinics in meeting them.
Specialized Services
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) notes that four of the nine required CCBHC services focus on specialized care:
- Crisis services, inclusive of 24/7 crisis prevention, management, and follow-up services, as well as education and access to resources like the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
- Individualized outpatient treatment for mental health and substance use disorders, delivered directly or through a DCO
- Psychiatric rehabilitation services that promote positive social-emotional and educational development
- Peer family support and counselor services, which make peer specialists, recovery coaches, and counselors available to all clients and caregivers
How an Advanced EHR Platform Can Help
The right CCBHC EHR can help providers complete this work optimally, enabling and delivering coordinated, real-time care tracking, analytics, and crisis team deployment. Staff can make custom workflows to streamline operations, which allows them to spend more time with clients in need and coordinate the care clients require.
In crisis situations, providers can use rule-based risk scores to identify and triage people at high risk. Many top systems even use those scores to flag these individuals. For outpatient treatment, advanced EHR systems provide clinicians with evidence-based practices and aid them in monitoring medication refills and conducting follow-up scheduling, among other support services. Meanwhile, caregivers can access schedules, assessments, and treatment plans through a centralized portal.
Person-Centered Support
A 2024 report form the National Council for Mental Wellbeing found that 75% of CCBHCs have increased their outreach to historically underrepresented individuals. This largely attributable to CCBHC requirements for person-centered support, including:
- Person- and family-centered treatment planning, in which CCBHCs partner with families and caregivers to create individualized treatment plans that address each client's unique needs
- Community-based, culturally competent, recovery-oriented mental healthcare for veterans
- Targeted case management, in which CCBHCs help clients at high risk of self-harm or overdose transition to hospitals or residential centers
How an Advanced CCBHC EHR Platform Can Help
Top EHRs offer self-service tools that clients, families, and caregivers can use to refill medications, schedule appointments, and review assessments. Some even employ machine learning analytics to help providers identify health-related social needs (HRSN) across populations and individuals to create customized care plans.
Telehealth capabilities give the 4 million veterans currently residing in rural areas a pathway to accessing behavioral health services. Providers can use a dual-function interface to take notes during virtual sessions.
Furthermore, a robust EHR enables the quick communication, specialized case management, and timely information-sharing required to address urgent needs in personalized ways during crisis situations.
Proactive and Prolonged Care
CCBHCs also focus on prevention, screening, and post-care interventions and monitoring,
primarily through two service requirements:
- Outpatient primary care, including implementing procedures to better ensure all clients receive screenings for chronic diseases and common health conditions; conducting ongoing monitoring; and facilitating primary care services, laboratory testing, and specialty care
- Screening, diagnosis, and risk assessment, conducted in alignment with clients’ language and literacy levels
How an Advanced EHR Platform Can Help
EHRs with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions help CCBHCs better care for their clients holistically. These solutions can pinpoint hard-to-spot symptoms and connect them with possible diagnoses and track HRSN in real time, enabling providers to more quickly screen for and address underlying conditions.
By using machine learning to predict outcomes and putting client symptoms in the context of population health data, these AI tools help providers make informed treatment and monitoring decisions.
Behavioral Healthcare & CCBHCs: 4 Ways Tech Supports Community Needs
If they hope to improve upon the clunky scheduling and inaccessibility that has plagued behavioral healthcare for years, CCBHCs and their partners can’t just conduct business as usual, with referrals layering care on top of ineffective systems.
Instead, CCBHCs need technology capable of facilitating coordinated, person-centered behavioral healthcare. Here are four ways an advanced technology solution can be a difference-maker for CCBHCs and their DCOs.
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Promoting Individualized, Coordinated, and Better-Quality Care
Person-centered behavioral healthcare — a core aspect of the CCBHC model — works. According to a 2023 study, it reduces readmission rates and cuts down on the number of unnecessary medical tests.
Advanced EHRs enable more effective, secure communication between CCBHCs, clients, and DCOs to foster this improved care. Providers can use the built-in coordinated scheduling system, communication tools, and notification features to stay current on a client’s behavioral healthcare journey. Through role-based permissions, CCBHCs and DCOs can access care plans, progress notes, assessment results, and more, all in a single, secure platform, to better ensure optimal care delivery and coordination.
CCBHCs and DCOs can also send educational resources, videos, and follow-up messages to clients through the EHR, building trust, strengthening engagement, and better ensuring clients understand and adhere to their care plans.
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Expanding Accessibility and Peer Support Services
Mental Health America reports that around 56% of adults with mental health conditions aren’t receiving treatment, and Lifepoint notes that 60% of residents live in mental health provider shortage areas.
An EHR with telehealth features can help navigate and solve these issues by enabling clients to schedule virtual visits around their availability and through their preferred communication channels. Meanwhile, mobile capabilities allow providers to securely work with session reports, progress tracking, and client notes, even when they’re offline. These features are particularly beneficial for clients in rural areas, those with mobility challenges, or those who live in provider shortage areas.
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Assessing Community Needs
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that community needs assessments are essential to understanding how policies, systems, and environmental concerns affect certain individuals and populations. When CCBHCs and DCOs better understand their clients holistically, they can make more informed staffing, scheduling, and service-based decisions to support clients effectively.
Artificial intelligence-powered solutions can help providers track and review session notes to spot health-related social needs across different client populations. That data gives CCBHCs and DCOs better insights into barriers to care access, population-centric care gaps, and proactive interventions, better enabling clinicians to personalize their care to meet clients’ specific needs.
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Improving Crisis Intervention and Prevention
Underserved populations face increased risk of crisis escalation, often leading to run-ins with the law. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, for example, mental illness is twice as prevalent in jails as in the overall adult population.
But CCBHCs are required to offer 24/7 crisis behavioral health services, and most partner with first responder teams to streamline immediate crisis intervention during these scenarios. When lives are on the line, clear communication and effective handoffs are vital, which is why many CCBHCs use robust EHRs that enable teams to triage clients through integrated workflows and fast call routing.
Digital Solutions for Enhancing Comprehensive Care Delivery

Having proven care methods in place for providers, full team alignment, and technological tools to deliver comprehensive care is crucial to ensuring CCBHC success and improving individual and population health. Delivering superior care to an individual starts with consideration of the complete person: not only their medical history, but also the personal habits and external influences that shape their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Every caregiver the client interacts with should be able to easily share this information and effectively coordinate their care.
By automating tasks, streamlining workflows, and providing evidence-based best practices, a behavioral health EHR can bolster care delivery for the betterment of all clients.
Elevating Whole-Person Health and Leveraging Evidence-based Practices for CCBHCs
Even for CCBHCs, which are set up to provide coordinated care, implementing evidence-based practices in local communities can be difficult. Heeding the call for more holistic care requires careful planning and may necessitate close alignment with multiple evidence-based practices across providers, such as:
Prioritizing Preventive Care
Regular preventive screening for chronic conditions reduces recurrences of substance use and mental health conditions, one 2022 study found. Preventive screening also promotes overall healthy living.
Key preventive care practices include:
- Health and behavior assessment and intervention (HBAI) services that address behavioral, social, and psychophysiological conditions alongside physical health challenges
- Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for substance use treatment, which is a form of early-intervention, evidence-based care for substance use disorders (SUDs) that assesses and supports at-risk individuals in a variety of care settings
Engaging Clients Holistically
Studies show that whole-person care can improve sleep, nutrition, depression symptoms, and more. Peer support services can be critical for engaging clients in their journey, particularly those reluctant or fearful of treatment. Through this approach, individuals with similar conditions and lived experiences provide support to clients with mental health or SUDs.
Responding to Population-Specific Needs
CCBHCs and their partners must first understand specific demographic-related trends in order to employ evidence-based practices that effectively meet health-related social needs. It’s essential for CCBHCs to screen for HRSNs and coordinate with community health workers who link local populations to services and provide education.
EHR Capabilities That Enhance Robust, Comprehensive Care
CCBHCs are in a unique position to employ the evidence-based practices above to improve the quality of whole-person healthcare. With strengthened communication and data tools, an advanced EHR can improve the efficiency, consistency, and efficacy of this work.
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Better Care Coordination Across Providers
Consider this scenario: A client tells their primary care provider (PCP) about a substance use relapse. Using the EHR, the PCP quickly coordinates scheduling with a CCBHC and rehabilitation facility, effectively handing off care. After receiving a notification and text message via a customized workflow in the platform, rehab providers access past treatment plans, assessment results, and doctor notes to ensure they’re current on the client’s needs. Arriving at the rehab facility, the client meets providers who already understand the client's history and can quickly collaborate with other caregivers to deliver evidence-based treatment.
In this scenario — and countless others — the EHR serves as a central source for communication and data access, strengthening care integration and coordination between the CCBHC and its partner organizations and providers. -
Stronger Insights for Preventive Care and Socially Driven Needs
Without real-time data, CCBHCs can be left in the dark about their clients’ individual and population-based needs. Top AI-powered solutions can analyze massive datasets, provider charts, and caregiver notes to spot health symptoms. The best solutions even connect those symptoms to possible diagnoses and integrate directly into EHRs. By tracking HRSN to pinpoint barriers to care for certain populations, these AI tools can enable clinicians to better address social challenges and provide more targeted, culturally competent, and evidence-based care. -
More Effective Whole-Person Care and Client Engagement
Whole-person care works best when clients are actively involved in their care journey. Using an EHR platform, clients can access educational materials tailored to their treatment plans, peer support services, and self-service scheduling — all through the channels they prefer, which is particularly helpful for engaging the intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) population, who may require more personalized delivery formats.
Best Practices and Technologies for Smarter CCBHC Care Coordination
Care coordination between CCBHCs and DCOs is essential to effective behavioral healthcare delivery. This is especially critical given that U.S.-based adults spend about eight hours each month coordinating their own care, with 65% of them saying the process is overwhelming, according to the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA). Close to half (44%) have even skipped or delayed care because of the disjointed nature of the modern healthcare system.
CCBHCs were designed to alleviate this burden for behavioral healthcare clients and improve the ability for anyone who needs care to get it. By implementing technologies that support seamless care coordination, CCBHCs can more securely share data, organize care plans, and better engage clients in their care journeys.
Importance of Integrated Behavioral Healthcare
According to SAMHSA, care coordination is a core CCBHC program requirement. Clinics are expected to quickly share client information with DCOs via secure EHRs and provide culturally competent, person-centered care coordination. In Missouri, for example, this kind of successful care coordination led to a 20% drop in hospitalization rates and a 23% increase in access to mental healthcare, notes the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.
But juggling multiple relationships across a multi-disciplinary team can be difficult — especially when CCBHCs use multiple EHRs to coordinate.
Managing too many disparate systems can result in an array of difficulties, like the following:
- Trouble maintaining accurate and current client data and organized, accessible provider notes
- Delayed information-sharing, which is particularly harmful during urgent crisis situations
- Non-compliance issues related to federal data privacy and security standards
These challenges can impede care coordination, increase errors, place unnecessary cost burdens on CCBHCs, and hinder care outcomes.
Practices for Coordinated Care
Harnessing the power of a centralized EHR enables CCBHCs to better align with DCOs through a collaborative central resource and improve how they serve clients. Here are five best practices for strengthening care coordination and outcomes with a robust EHR.
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Align on and Share Treatment Plans
Use the EHR to sync on care plans, review each other's clinical notes, and discuss client needs. Communicative, integrated behavioral healthcare fosters collaboration and co-planning, while enabling everyone to act quickly when urgent needs arise. In a mental health crisis situation, for example, CCBHCs can coordinate quickly with psychiatric facilities to identify open beds.
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Prioritize Interoperability and Continuity
Consider using an EHR that facilitates interoperability, allowing everyone who cares for a client to access schedules, care plans, assessments, and provider notes. Find an EHR solution with customizable role-based permissions to streamline collaboration, while helping meet data privacy requirements.
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Optimize Workflows and Performance
CCBHCs are responsible for coordinating care with DCOs and reporting on their progress to governing organizations. A top EHR offers an intuitive performance dashboard to support these requirements. Providers across the care spectrum can see care quality, safety, and performance metrics, or create custom filters to track quality measures, value-based payments, and improvement insights.
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Leverage Key Functionality for Providing Timely Care
Employ AI-backed tools that can help spot symptoms, identify outliers in clinical progress notes, and flag issues that can negatively impact client outcomes. With bespoke workflows, an advanced EHR empowers CCBHCs to monitor referrals to DCOs to ensure clients are an remain on track.
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Keep Compliance Top of Mind
No matter the technologies you use, legal and regulatory compliance should guide your workflows, Some of the best EHRs come with built-in compliance tracking solutions that monitor key deadlines and allow staff to assign responsibilities to everyone in the integrated behavioral healthcare ecosystem. Multi-disciplinary teams can access dashboards and reports to help everyone stay current on evolving regulatory requirements.
Innovative Advances to Upgrade Comprehensive Care Operations

As the number of clients in need of behavioral healthcare grows, CCBHC providers face a bevy of complex operational challenges. CCBHCs must contend with multifaceted workstreams, new and more varied client challenges, and extensive communication with their DCOs, including information-sharing and handoffs that require both speed and precision.
When these administrative tasks are slowed by clunky barriers to streamlined operations, clinicians aren’t able to provide the highest-quality care possible. How can CCBHCs and DCOs upgrade their ability and the ability of their team members to provide comprehensive care? With a robust digital infrastructure.
Ways an EHR Platform Can Strengthen CCBHC Staff
Performance
Operational burdens impact not only care quality and outcomes, but also providers’ productivity, well-being, and satisfaction. With an EHR tailored to the behavioral health space, CCBHC providers can better access the tools they need to perform at their best while reducing or eliminating work that can add to stress and potentially lead to turnover.
Here are five ways an advanced EHR enhances staff’s work and often satisfaction as well.
1. It Reduces Workloads — and Burnout
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 46% of healthcare staff felt burned out often or very often in 2022, up from 32% in 2018. Clinicians cite increased caseloads, case severity, and concern about the larger healthcare labor shortage as major factors. And 75% of providers feel that reducing administrative loads would meaningfully decrease burnout, according to a Doximity survey.
An EHR system can help save providers time, reduce their workloads, and cut burnout rates by giving them a centralized, customizable hub for all client management tasks. Through their EHR, CCBHC clinicians can offer clients self-service medication refills, appointment scheduling, and visit reminders — all things that would otherwise require dedicated staff. AI chatbots can answer client questions, while mobile capabilities and an intuitive interface can further help minimize the administrative burden placed on CCBHCs. As a result, clinicians can spend more and better-quality time with clients or achieve improvements in work-life balance, which strengthens staff retention and may also help with recruitment.
2. It Supports Clinical Decision-Making
The National Council for Mental Wellbeing found that 81% of CCBHCs screen for unmet social needs and 75% target outreach to underrepresented populations.
The right EHR can bolster these efforts by providing the data and insights needed to enhance client care. With machine learning-backed analytics tools, providers can get insights into health-related social needs and population-based needs to allocate resources effectively. The best EHRs for a mental health or substance use disorder professional to consider also create custom dashboards with intuitive data visualizations that provide additional insights for monitoring client progress and treatment adherence.
Tools like these not only boost the quality of community behavioral health services, but they also save providers time, enable more precise decision-making, and reduce human error that can harm outcomes.
3. It Optimizes Workflows
For any given CCBHC, a DCO network can be complex to manage, requiring effective collaboration to successfully see clients through each step of their care journey.
Advanced EHRs offer bespoke workflows that better ensure care continuity and streamline communication with DCOs. CCBHCs can set custom permissions to give each DCO only the information they need, which can drastically improve efficiency. With data on caseloads, time management, and billing procedures, clinicians can spot gaps to optimize their operations even more.
4. It Keeps Everyone on the Same Page
Quick and effective information-sharing can save lives - particularly in crisis situations. When employing the right EHR providers can collaborate via the likes of text, web chat, and video calls, enabling fast communication and information-sharing at every step.
Many EHRs also have scheduling capabilities that allow CCBHCs and DCOs to coordinate calendars and appointments based on provider and bed availability. In addition, real-time access to treatment plans, assessment results, and more gives everyone the most accurate data possible.
5. It Helps Staff Stay Current
Embedded EHR alerts notify clients of upcoming appointments and medication reminders, thereby reducing no-show rates and the number of inquiries a clinic receives. These are other alerts also help keep CCBHCs and DCOs current on treatment plans and compliant with reporting requirements. Providers can use their EHR to monitor regulations and track progress, keeping everyone involved in the client's plan informed.
What CCBHCs Should Look for in Behavioral Health
Billing Solutions
The CCBHC model eschews traditional payment structures in favor of a system that offers more flexibility and financial support to truly re-envision what behavioral healthcare can look like.
But to meet the complexities of this payment structure, CCBHCs need the right behavioral health billing solutions. With an advanced EHR, CCBHCs can get automated insights, compliance tracking, and more to help ensure every client receives the care and support they deserve.
5 Essential Features of a CCBHC Billing Solution
In the CCBHC prospective payment system (PPS), states certify CCBHCs and set custom rates based on each clinic’s cost reporting from the previous year, enabling states to control cost growth. As a result, each clinic has its own payment rate based on services offered and clients served.
Here are five essential features of behavioral health billing solutions that can help CCBHCs meet PPS requirements.
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Comprehensive Data Management
Providing accurate cost reports to the state on a regular basis is a key requirement of the CCBHC billing model.
Each report must include several types of data, including the following:
- Cost of services that CCBHC providers render
- Cost of care that DCOs render to provide additional client support
- Cost of “shadow services,” which involve underlying encounters that comprise full-service delivery, such as follow-up appointments or telehealth visits
Strong EHRs can take much of the heavy lifting of data collection and reporting off of CCBHCs and DCOs. Clinics can set custom billing rules for their unique situation and access consolidated data from multiple streams through their customized dashboard. Data tracking capabilities make identifying the right information and constructing state-ready reports quick and easy.
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Integrated Billing and Clinical Tracking
As part of their data reporting, CCBHCs must differentiate provider and service types falling under the behavioral health umbrella. This can be incredibly time-consuming considering these categories shift from state to state, with each state requiring specific reporting codes.
An EHR can save clinics considerable time by providing automated session time tracking per provider and/ or service line. Custom, clinic-specific documentation helps organize this data and ensure it aligns with state reporting requirements. These tools transform clinical work into structured and accurate billing data.
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Sophisticated Automation Capabilities
CCBHCs and DCOs must also include both current and anticipated costs, which allows states to set rates based on projected clinic needs and benchmark costs across CCBHCs.
With automated, real-time analytics, EHRs empower providers to better and more accurately project their anticipated costs based on past data. The system reduces the need for time-consuming manual math with automated payment plan administration, self-pay facilitation, and collection protocols. EHRs that send automated follow-ups on billing procedures and collections better ensure billing cycles run smoothly and boost a clinic’s overall operational efficiency.
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Tailored Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)
Quickly verifying insurance eligibility, accurately assessing out-of-pocket costs, capturing charges without error, and coordinating DCO partnerships are all central parts of successful CCBHC revenue cycle management.
To complete these tasks effectively, CCBHCs should employ behavioral health billing solutions that help clinics generate bills automatically, create seamless workflows for distributing payments, and capture charges with minimal error, all of which contribute to stronger RCM.
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Regulatory Compliance and Data Security
With sensitive client data regularly flowing between CCBHCs and DCOs, maintaining data privacy and security are critical. EHRs that integrate behavioral health billing solutions with compliance and data security features are key. In these systems, providers and clients can sign forms, communicate, review progress notes, and pay bills safely and securely.
Simplifying Comprehensive Care Quality Reporting and Outcomes

The multifaceted CCBHC quality measures are part of what makes the model so effective. Clinicians must track performance data across different categories and supply this information regularly to their state and SAMHSA, their governing organization. This data-driven cycle enables these entities to better optimize the care model and support efforts to improve outcomes.
With a leading digital comprehensive care solution, facilities can access insights into clinic operations and outcomes to better ensure they fulfill their duties as participants in the CCBHC model and continuously improve.
CCBHC Quality Measures: Solutions for Meeting Strict
Requirements
Meeting CCBHC quality measures can be a complex and challenging burden for clinics. But the right EHR can help providers not only meet but exceed quality measure requirements and streamline data collection processes.
A Data-Backed System of Ensured Quality
According to the Measures Management System, quality measures are defined as “standards for measuring the performance and improvement of population health or of health plans, providers of services, and other clinicians.”
CCBHC quality measures provide a standardized method of evaluating a clinic’s effectiveness across a number of categories, including clinic capacity, processes, and client outcomes.
The measures enable individual clinics and/or SAMHSA to do the following:
- Evaluate the performance of specific providers, facilities, and systems
- Inform quality-improvement efforts
- Compare providers over time to derive benchmarks for success
- Assess and provide CCBHCs with quality bonus payments, a unique incentive program that encourages high-quality care delivery and optimized outcomes
In this model, states must gather administrative data related to required CCBHC quality measures, like the number of follow-up visits mental health clients have after hospitalization or the rate of pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder at each clinic. Each CCBHC must submit medical records data such as depression remission rates, high blood pressure rates, and health-related social needs.
How to Meet Quality Reporting Requirements
This complicated quality measurement and data collection system supports continuous improvement of the CCBHC model itself. But successful client care and optimization depends on the effectiveness of each clinic’s data-collection infrastructure.
Here’s how an advanced EHR can help.
Provide Measurement-Based Care
The right technological infrastructure enables providers to create effective operational systems and utilize AI powered tools to assess clients’ needs, monitor progress, and measure the impact of treatment plans.
Offering embedded evidence-based workflows, EHRs empower providers to quickly access interactive checklists and real-time guidance on which assessments to implement. This helps ensure no essential information is lost or steps are missed. By customizing filters, clinicians can pinpoint exactly where each client is within the care continuum to better ensure treatment plan engagement and adherence.
Collect the Right Data at the Right Time
Quality measure reporting is only as good as the accuracy and timeliness of the data collected. That’s why CCBHCs need EHRs that allow them to define time frames, customize filters, and create bespoke rules that align with data requirements.
These features help CCBHCs collect the right data without time-consuming and error-prone manual work. Many AI-backed tools also help collect and assess data at scale, aiding in both individualized care and demographic-centered care.
How CCBHCs Can Use Data and AI To Accelerate Quality Improvement
An EHR can significantly impact your behavioral health clinic’s operations and backend processes. When backed by AI-powered solutions, however, the EHR also becomes a tool for accessing better data-driven insights that can boost a clinic’s quality of care and workflows.
Here are five actionable steps you can take to optimize your CCBHC’s data collection processes — and the data itself — for more effective quality improvement.
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Stay Current on Operations With Real-Time Analytics
It’s nearly impossible to solve a problem without the most up-to-date information. CCBHCs that use technology to access real-time analytics have a leg up in improving their quality of care delivery and overall performance.
When providers can see the latest data on clients’ treatment plans, clinic workflow efficiency, and large-scale behavioral healthcare issues through intuitive data dashboards, they can prompt client interventions and targeted initiatives that can save lives and improve organization performance.
AI tools that track hard-to-spot symptoms can further enhance quality of care. The Core Clinician Assist: Symptom Tracking solution, for example, uses embedded data from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) manual to associate symptoms with potential diagnoses — laying the foundation for more accurate care planning and outcomes.
Solutions like this help reduce clinical and administrative errors, maximize operational effectiveness, and provide an advantage in the pursuit of quality improvement.
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Integrate Data Collection Into Workflows So Nothing’s Lost
In any CCBHC, data flows rapidly between providers and DCOs every day. Clinics that integrate data-collection technologies into these workflows can access critical quality improvement insights, such as diagnosis and treatment challenges, reductions in care plan adherence, and increases in hospitalization rates.
With a leading EHR, CCBHCs can incorporate behavioral health assessments directly into the digital intake process, edit forms to reflect CCBHC quality reporting needs, and build checklists and alerts into workflows to better ensure information on client progress and other vital data is being monitored, recorded, and incorporated into the evaluation of the clinic’s performance.
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Learn More From Multiple Data Sources
In the CCBHC model, DCOs extend the range and locations of services offered — which is why it’s critical for facilities to collect data from all providers a client sees, such as primary care and psychiatric rehabilitation professionals, and from all digital information sources, like mental health records and inpatient histories.
AI-powered documentation tools can streamline this data capture by quickly scanning and summarizing client session notes. Other solutions use natural language processing (NLP) to identify health-related social needs. These insights enable providers to plan more targeted interventions — and, on a larger scale, collect data across their communities to see what barriers to access and demographic-specific challenges they can help further tackle.
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Review Quality Measure Data Regularly for Ongoing Advancements
Regular data submission is a must for all CCBHCs. But don’t wait until submission deadlines to review quality measure data. Instead, establish ongoing (e.g., monthly, quarterly, yearly) data review sessions to evaluate what you’ve collected through your AI-powered infrastructure and advanced EHR. Embed data review processes directly into your day-to-day operations. Doing so will help you refine your quality improvement initiatives and better meet reporting requirements.
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Benchmark Performance for Optimal Results
The CCBHC model also requires states to collect and report on key data to inform continuous quality improvement. The combination of individual clinic and statewide data gives CCBHCs a benchmarking tool and allows them to obtain a bird’s-eye view of the landscape. As part of regular data review sessions, clinics can evaluate their performance against these insights.
Making the Most of Your Data and Intelligent Technology
Using an EHR with integrated AI solutions can give you a complete, more accurate picture of your clinic’s operations and quality of care. But this should be viewed as just the first step. What you then do with these insights can make all the difference.
Implementing a continuous quality improvement process can help reduce costs, minimize client wait times, increase volumes, reduce manual errors, and boost client satisfaction, among other improvements.
According to one study, this process should include the following:
- Defining areas in need of improvement
- Benchmarking performance in those areas
- Setting a goal for improvement
- Establishing and iterating on projects until you achieve that goal
It’s crucial to tailor your continuous quality improvement strategy to your clinic’s data. If data show communication inefficiencies, for example, use your EHR’s integrated collaboration tools to share information more effectively with psychiatric rehabilitation centers, mental health records holders, and other DCOs. If you’ve identified specific, unmet, population-level HRSN, for example, put processes in place to better support clients within those populations. Pinpointing and addressing your clinic’s and clients’ unique needs is key.
Implementing the Right EHR for Superior and Comprehensive Care

So far, the CCBHC model has made a considerable impact on communities across the nation. According to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, the model has driven a 72% reduction in hospitalizations, a 40.7% reduction in homelessness, and a 60.3% reduction in jail time for people with behavioral health conditions.
The technological infrastructure that serves as the backbone for many CCBHCs is a big factor in making such impressive results possible. Ensuring your clinic has the perfect EHR fit to thrive within this model should be a top priority.
7 Signs It’s Time to Move on From Your CCBHC’s Behavioral Health EHR
While EHRs are essential to success as a CCBHC, not every EHR is created equal. If you’re not seeing impressive results from your behavioral health EHR, it might be time to integrate a more advanced solution designed specifically for your clinic’s needs. Here are seven signs you should upgrade your platform.
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You’re losing track of clients in the system.
To avoid care lapses and ensure clients receive the most appropriate treatment possible, CCBHCs must have the ability to accurately assess client conditions, regularly measure their progress, and engage them at every stage of their journey.
EHRs that empower providers with streamlined communications, smooth operations, and effective client engagement solutions can help ensure no one gets lost in the system. Real-time data detailing a client’s progress can inform better decision-making, while enabling clinicians to make sure clients adhere to treatment plans. Functionality like client/provider communication tools and easy appointment scheduling further help clients remain engaged in their care and adhering to treatment and support plans.
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Your readmission and hospitalization rates are high.
If your readmission rates are higher than the norm, you might need a mental health software solution that elevates your care planning and delivery. Adopt an EHR with integrated checklists that use evidence-based practices that can aid in clinical decision-making. These features — especially when combined with others like risk-factor protocols or symptom tracking — can enable CCBHCs to provide the best individualized, whole-person care possible.
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You and your DCOs aren’t on the same page.
Experiencing miscommunication or misalignment with DCOs might be a sign that your CCBHC needs a new behavioral health EHR that supports better teamwork. An EHR platform with embedded communication and collaboration features can enable providers to coordinate roles, responsibilities, and role-based permissions.
What’s more, a leading EHR allows CCBHCs and DCOs to access provider notes and treatment plans at any time through a secure portal. Clinicians can communicate through their preferred channels to align on a client’s progress or crisis management plans. In this way, the platform not only ensures everyone stays aligned, but it also allows providers to adapt to new client information in real time.
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You’re spending too much time — and money — on manual processes.
If most of your staff’s time is going toward manual data collection or client care logistics rather than clinical care, you’d likely benefit from a behavioral health EHR upgrade. Look for an EHR that allows staff to set custom data collection rules to help you seamlessly collect real-time data on clinic operations, client outcomes, and treatment progress. CCBHCs can save significant time and accurately assess organizational performance while optimizing care processes for the betterment of all.
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Your state can’t set custom payment rates for your clinic.
When CCBHCs submit inaccurate or incomplete data, their state is unable to determine accurate payment rates, which may impact clients’ abilities to access affordable care. In these cases, CCBHCs should consider adopting a solution with integrated billing and diverse funding source management. Providers and staff should be able to set unique billing rules and integrate data from multiple sources through one central platform. This enables clinics to automate data collection and more efficiently and effectively manage their revenue cycles.
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You aren’t targeting population-based health challenges.
Population-based HRSN are a key part of an individual’s healthcare picture. In fact, CCBHCs thrive when they’re able to better identify and understand the conditions in which their clients live and the resulting HRSN that affect their ability to maintain good health and well-being.
To help ensure your clinic can accurately and consistently identify clients’ social and economic needs, find an EHR with AI-powered HRSN tracking solutions. These tools can connect population-based data with individual client needs and serve up this data at the point of care to support improved clinical decision-making.
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You’ve been fined for non-compliance.
A strong behavioral health EHR can take on much of the otherwise manual work needed to keep up with shifting regulatory requirements. Integrated compliance trackers with set deadlines, roles, and data fields can help clinics ensure ongoing regulatory compliance. Providers can assign role-based task lists for compliance-related responsibilities and use custom dashboards for monitoring deadlines and assessing tasks.
6 Things CCBHCs & Behavioral Health Centers Must Do to Deploy an EHR
Selecting — or making the switch to — the right CCBHC EHR can enhance behavioral health centers’ entire operations. But success often depends on an effective implementation process. Here are six steps to make this process as smooth, effective, and successful as possible.
1. Assess your current operational state
Before integrating a new system, analyze your clinic’s operations, including provider workflows, client communication channels, billing procedures, DCO collaboration processes, and more. What’s working? What’s not? When are clients not supported sufficiently? What tasks are too time-consuming for staff?
Then, explore SAMHSA’s federal-level guidance for behavioral health centers and CCBHC mental health centers. State program expectations can vary from national requirements, however, so be sure to explore your state’s CCBHC website for details on nomenclature, guidelines, and data requirements, as your EHR will impact all aspects of your operations. Access the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s implementation support center for free training and technical assistance.
2. Secure organizational buy-in
EHR implementation requires everyone to adapt to new systems and procedures, which means securing buy-in from clinic leaders and end users is a must.
Build trust by articulating the “why” behind the EHR implementation and opening up lines of communication. Use data to explain how a strong EHR can help enhance the clinic’s workflows, data collection processes, collaboration, and ability to provide whole-person care.
Providers and staff are looking for tools to help relieve their workloads. To earn their buy-in for a new system, communicate the benefits of a robust, integrated EHR and how it will positively impact their day-to-day experiences. The more you can emphasize how the solution will ultimately benefit users and the clients they support, the more likely it is that you will secure the buy-in and engagement you seek.
3. Create a strong implementation strategy
While not everyone needs to be involved in EHR implementation, you’ll still need a dedicated team. The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends including individuals in several key roles on that team, such as:
- C-suite members
- Clinical department leaders
- Providers, nurses, and staff
- Information technology (IT) specialists
- Legal specialists
- Revenue cycle leaders
Be sure to include your DCOs in the implementation process and consider both logistical and change management strategies. Use one of these two AMA-recommended rollout plans:
- The systemwide rollout, in which you implement the new EHR in every department and service area at once. This strategy can save time and potentially money but can be difficult to do efficiently.
- The phased rollout, in which you implement incrementally. This strategy can take more time but may result in fewer errors and oversights.
Challenges and roadblocks happen in any implementation process. Anticipate these and build in regular checkpoints to adapt to new information, gather feedback, and address any issues.
4. Configure workflows
Care coordination is fundamental to successful CCBHC mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Behavioral health centers need to stay in frequent contact with clients, communicate with DCOs, and ensure all clients stay on track with their treatment plans.
When implementing your EHR, configure workflows to your networks needs by first identifying any problems with existing processes. Use embedded evidence-based practices to map out new workflows and establish role-based protocols to give everyone exactly what they need to use the EHR.
Additionally, make sure clients within behavioral health centers have access to integrated scheduling tools, progress notes, assessments, and educational materials directly through the EHR.
5. Integrate data
States use CCBHC data to not only determine clinic-specific billing costs for the next year, but also to align with the Excellence in Mental Health Act and provide bonus payments for clinics demonstrating exceptional outcomes.
As you set up your workflows and implement your EHR< integrate current systems and establish bespoke rules for automated data collection. When it's time to assess your clinic's progress or submit information to the state, your EHR's integrated, organized data will help make all the difference.
6. Train your staff
There's one final implementation step: training your administrative staff, nurses, and providers to ensure they understand the technology, how it can help them meet required quality measures, and their role in new workflows. Engage these end users in training sessions virtually or physically at behavioral health centers to show them exactly how the solution will integrate in their daily work.
Better yet, select an EHR vendor that offers hands-on training and end-to-end implementation support, including discovery, configuration, and testing. Doing so can accelerate your implementation process, improve buy-in, and reduce time-consuming errors.
The Key to Effective, Comprehensive Care for CCBHCs
The CCBHC model was developed to solve some of the toughest and most impactful problems in our behavioral healthcare system, and it’s working. Clients are receiving better-quality care and more affordable services, while clinics are analyzing and acting on more quality improvement data than ever before.
What helps make this impressive success possible is the technology clinics are adopting. Comprehensive care depends on clinics having comprehensive solutions — and robust EHRs like Core Solutions’ Cx360 platform are meeting the challenge. Cx360 comes with customizable workflows, advanced communication features, telehealth capabilities, revenue cycle management tools, and integrated AI solutions like the following:
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Core Clinician Assist: Symptom Tracking, which identifies symptoms according to IDC-10 criteria and pairs those insights with potential diagnoses
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Core Clinician Assist: Documentation, which allows providers to record spoken client sessions and then access summaries for quick reporting and diagnosis
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Core Clinician Assist: HRSN Tracking, which analyzes data at scale to spot the social and economic needs that affect each client’s ability to maintain their health
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Core Clinician Assist: Anomaly Detection, which pinpoints outliers in clinical progress notes to help avoid negative outcomes
With these cutting-edge solutions — and many other leading capabilities — the Cx360 platform serves as the foundation that enables clinicians to do what they do best: provide the high-quality, comprehensive care that clients deserve.
To learn more about how Cx360 can enhance your CCBHC’s operations, schedule a demo of the platform today.
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