The only true constant is change, particularly when you are part of a team committed to
continuously improving the health and wellness of all Arizonans. October 1 was an important day for the behavioral health system in Arizona with four significant system transformations occurring simultaneously. The Division of Behavioral Health Services, with a
lot of support from other team members throughout ADHS, went live with two new regional behavioral health authority (RBHA) contracts, Health Choice Integrated Care in the north and Cenpatico Integrated Care in the south. These two new contracted RBHAs both offer integrated physical and behavioral health services to individuals with a serious mental illness while dual eligible members (members with both Medicare and Medicaid) who do not have a serious mental illness transitioned from the RBHAs to integrated care through AHCCCS contracted Acute Care Plans statewide. On the same day, DBHS transitioned the serious mental illness determination process to a single, centralized, third party contractor in Crisis Response Network. Lastly, the ICD-10 coding process for both claim and demographic submissions went live on October 1, marking a major change that has required months of design and programming support from the ADHS IT team and the DBHS Business Information Systems team.

All of these transitions represent critical system transformation efforts to improve health outcomes for individuals who experience behavioral health and substance use challenges in Arizona. To prepare for these transitions, staff from the RBHAs, Acute Care Plans, AHCCCS, CRN, providers, and DBHS spent countless hours over the past nine months preparing to meet expectations in areas such as network development, member services, staffing, quality management, medical management, information systems, infrastructure development and member transition. Those preparation efforts were well worth it; resulting in a nearly seamless transition. DBHS and AHCCCS will continue to closely monitor implementation activities and key quality indicators to ensure continued performance. Well done all and thank you for your dedication to the health and wellness of Arizonans!