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Offering Essential Solutions to people with depression: a managed care company creates a multiservice program.

Article Excerpt
Untreated or undertreated depression leads to significant personal morbidity, increased medical service utilization, increased mortality, and increased burdens on employers because of absenteeism and decreased productivity. To combat these effects of depression, Companion Benefit Alternatives, Inc. (CBA) implemented Essential Solutions for depression management. CBA introduced this specialized disease management program, which recently was awarded silver honors in URAC s prestigious 2009 Best Practices in Health Care Consumer Empowerment and Protection Awards competition, in September 2006.

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Columbia, South Carolina-based CBA is a managed behavioral health organization administering mental health and substance abuse benefits for more than one million people served by BlueCross and BlueShield of South Carolina and other Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans, Blue-Choice HealthPlan of South Carolina, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, and Planned Administrators, Inc., plans (CBA is a separate company that administers mental health benefits). In conjunction with David Oslin, MD, and the Behavioral Health Laboratory based at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania, CBA developed Essential Solutions as a flexible service to help manage the behavioral health needs of patients seen by primary care providers (PCPs). Essential Solutions addresses all stakeholders' needs by supporting PCPs; providing education...

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