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Path Mental Health Review 2023
Path Mental Health is a service that matches you with a therapist, psychiatrist or mental health facility based on your provider preferences, availability and insurance coverage. The platform's providers work with anyone aged 5 and up, and accept individuals, couples and families.
To get started with finding a mental health provider through Path, users must fill out a brief form requesting the following information:
Based on this information, Path will match you with a provider in its network and help to schedule your first appointment. Path Mental Health prioritizes finding providers who are within a patient's insurance network and works with a number of major insurance companies, including Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, Optum, Oscar and United Healthcare. Additionally, Path can work with some other employer-based plans, and bills insurances for out-of-network coverage, according to the company. At this time, Path does not accept Medicaid or Medicare plans.
According to Path, initial visits are typically scheduled within one week of completing the company's online intake form. There's no service fee, as patients are only responsible for covering the cost of their sessions. However, it's necessary to keep a payment method on file with Path in order to cover any out-of-pocket costs remaining from any uncovered or unreimbursed portion of your therapy session charge. These may include TK Charges are only processed after a session is over and the provider has completed their required documentation, which usually occurs 24 to 48 hours after a session.
Sessions scheduled through Path last for one hour, with 53 minutes of that time devoted to therapy and the remaining seven minutes for the provider to take notes on the session and what you covered. Providers conduct sessions over Zoom, with links to connect to the session sent via email 24 hours ahead of a scheduled appointment.
After your initial visit, you'll work directly with your provider to continue scheduling sessions.
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Get Started With 20% OffReport Eyes Path To Aid Those Without Health Insurance
BOSTON — Thousands of Massachusetts residents from marginalized backgrounds could gain health insurance coverage should policymakers move to expand eligibility criteria for state-subsidized plans and remove administrative hurdles, a report released April 27 found.
Massachusetts boasts the highest insurance rate in the country, with about 2% to 3% lacking coverage at any point in time. But those roughly 200,000 uninsured individuals are disproportionately people of color or immigrants, and about one-third have limited English language skills that make it difficult to use the state's insurance marketplace, according to the report from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.
"Massachusetts pioneered a system of near-universal health care coverage that was later adopted nationally in the Affordable Care Act. We have a lot to be proud of, but our work is not finished," Audrey Shelto, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a statement. "Our research shows there is an opportunity to build on our legacy by tackling the coverage disparities that persist in our system through further action on the policy front."
The report pointed to another statistic to put the state of the uninsured in perspective. The state's overall low uninsured rate climbed above 7% — encompassing about 503,000 people — in a 2019 state survey that probed how many individuals didn't have coverage over a 12-month period, the report noted.
The new report comes as hundreds of thousands of people stand to lose MassHealth insurance coverage as program administrators redetermine eligibility for 2.3 million members. Some of those people remain eligible for certain subsidized plans, the foundation said.
Researchers found that Black residents comprise 7% of the state population, but 11% of Bay Staters who are uninsured. Hispanic residents represent 12% of the state population but 23% of the uninsured population. Meanwhile, just over half of the uninsured population is white, although these residents make up 71% of the state's population, according to the report.
A majority of residents without health insurance cited the price tag as a barrier.
Officials can alleviate that concern by raising the income eligibility level for ConnectorCare health insurance plans — which come with $0 or low monthly premiums, according to the state — above 300 percent of the federal poverty line. The current maximum threshold is $40,770 for one individual and $83,250 for a household of four.
House Democrats in the annual budget bill they are advancing this week propose launching a two-year pilot program expanding eligibility for ConnectorCare to residents earning up to 500 percent of the federal poverty level.
In another ConnectorCare change, the report urges officials to allow individuals at up to 200% of the federal line to benefit from $0 monthly premiums, rather than pay the $48 amount. Officials could also slash co-pays for certain health treatments, easing current circumstances in which Bay Staters may opt to go to the emergency room as needed to avoid incurring those monthly costs.
The report also recommends that MassHealth and ConnectorCare plans should be available to individuals and families in Massachusetts regardless of their immigration status. But that would also require state dollars be used to cover Bay Staters who are disqualified under federal rules, the report said.
About half of uninsured adults are eligible for public or government-subsidized programs, according to the report.
Yet Bay Staters could experience coverage gaps as they navigate "complicated processes" like enrollment and eligibility renewals. Those problems are exacerbated when people don't know where or how to seek help, as well as for people "who do not speak English or Spanish or have low literacy, who have physical and behavioral health conditions, or who have experienced job loss, food insecurity, homelessness, and other forms of instability or crisis situations."
Officials could lessen MassHealth coverage gaps by conducting multilingual outreach, expanding "automated eligibility practices," and implementing a policy that would ensure continuous eligibility for 12 months, according to the report.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation said its policy recommendations can serve as "guideposts" for future decision-making.
"Those discussions should view the goal of closing the state's remaining coverage gaps as achievable and as part of the larger goal of making health care more equitable, affordable, and accessible for everyone who lives in Massachusetts," the report states.
How JAMS Pathways Can Improve Organizational Health
The COVID-19 pandemic may have subsided, but its enormous toll on staff and management at hospitals and health care organizations is still evident, creating tension, pressure, internal disputes and turnover.
Melody Emrich, Genesis Fisher and Richard Birke from the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider JAMS recently spoke about those challenges and how JAMS Pathways, a customizable service for addressing and preventing conflict, can help.
What challenges have you seen recently in the health care industry?
Melody Emrich: Based on recent engagements and conversations with industry players, we see a range of cultural clashes within health care workforces—whether mistrust between staff and management, claims of racial and gender inequities, or intergenerational tensions.
We're also seeing a high level of burnout. Obviously, the pandemic put enormous pressure on health care workers. But the issue hasn't subsided. A recent nationwide survey of nurses and doctors found that 63% are experiencing burnout. Understaffing is the biggest driver.
Genesis Fisher: I agree. The expectations of people in the health care industry keep going up. They're expected to be more productive and work longer hours. COVID-19 hit workers hard. Even with the added pressure and personal sacrifices, in many cases, they were not offered additional support in terms of counseling and employee resource groups. So we've seen some mistrust and resentment develop between leadership and employees.
What's at stake for organizations that let these issues fester?
Melody: In a worst-case scenario, they could be putting lives in danger. Overworked staff can make mistakes. And in the health care space, mistakes can be deadly. Other negative consequences include lost productivity, low morale, increased turnover and costly litigation. Too often, we've seen organizations fail to address potential problems early that snowball into full-blown crises.
JAMS created Pathways to address disputes and tensions early, right?
Richard Birke: That's right. ADR has traditionally consisted of mediation and arbitration, where parties in conflict ask a neutral to facilitate or decide the outcome of a defined problem. But sometimes, problems aren't so tidy.
JAMS Pathways allows for a new path forward that's more proactive. Through a deep dive, we dig into an organization's problems. Why are employees feeling frustrated or angry? Why are so many people leaving or thinking of leaving their jobs? We identify and hear from all relevant stakeholders. We then structure events—such as facilitated conversations, meetings and workshops—designed specifically to address the needs of the diverse stakeholders. These events provide a road map for progress, and they assign responsibility for the oversight of the project to a professional trained in conflict management.
Genesis: And since JAMS Pathways is an external, neutral entity, we are able to build trust with the stakeholders who might not otherwise invest in such a process. This helps everyone feel safe so they can speak freely about their needs and desired outcomes, which leads to real change benefitting the workplace.
How might a structured event play out in a hospital?
Richard: It could focus on improving the climate for underrepresented minority residents or on addressing resilience and rejuvenation for nurses and staff. It could be a dialogue between overlapping medical divisions with different visions regarding optimal patient care. The order of events, the logistics, the mechanics and the execution of all these processes would be in experienced hands. Leaders could and would be intimately involved in the resolution process without having to balance the roles of facilitator and participant. A neutral third party allows leaders to pursue institutional values without the need to construct, convene and conduct all the conversations that might be needed. Staff would have clarity and feel a stake in the creation and execution of a fair process—and the very act of having open dialogue about important issues at work increases a sense of belonging, and with that comes increased work outcomes.
Can you expand on what the JAMS Pathways process looks like?
Genesis: Our work is often organized in four phases. During phase one, we speak with key players in an organization to get a broad overview of the problems and give some feedback about what needs to happen before an intervention can be designed. Then, in phase two, we dive deeper and speak with a broad set of stakeholders to investigate what's working and what's not. We use all of this information to develop a customized plan to address the problems. Phase three is executing that process to. Phase four looks back at where we started, defines what has been accomplished and lays out how an organization can sustain the momentum that has been created.
What does success look like?
Melody: We've been fortunate to receive confirmation of success through client referrals, letters of recommendation, and testimonials from clients expressing gratitude for how we have helped their organizations. We also know the process works through the results of surveys we conduct after every engagement.
Genesis: While supporting an organization to create a new process to ensure a better workplace environment, we received a message to the effect of "JAMS Pathways totally gets us and what we're trying to do here." That's the kind of validation that makes this work so rewarding.
Learn more about JAMS Pathways here.
Richard Birke is a senior vice president of JAMS and the executive director of the JAMS Institute—the teaching and training arm of JAMS. In addition, he is the chief architect of JAMS Pathways, a customizable service for addressing and preventing conflict.
Melody Emrich is a client solutions manager who helps health care entities address their organizational challenges through JAMS Pathways.
Genesis Fisher, Esq., is a JAMS mediator, trainer and Associate Director of the JAMS Institute, handling contentious matters of all types. Through mediation, coaching and conflict resolution training, she gets people talking so they can share their frustrations, address differences and repair trust.
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