Financing

The financing of suicide-related care is key to the adoption of best practices and recommended minimum standard care. Providers need to be able to seek reimbursement to deliver suicide-related care. Health systems need a better grasp of which practices are reimbursable and through what mechanisms. Health plans need a case for adopting standard care recommendations and tools for promoting their utilization among their providers.

Engaging Health Plans

Health plans are key players in the U.S. health care system. Involving health plans in suicide prevention can improve quality of care for persons with suicide risk, prevent and reduce suicidal behaviors, and lead to substantial cost savings for health care systems and payers.

In 2015, the Action Alliance convened representatives from several major U.S. health plans to discuss the role of health plans in suicide prevention. Participants identified five recommendations for health plans to consider:

• Support adoption of clinical practice guidelines for suicide care 
• Convene a working group to establish industry guidelines for collecting data on suicide deaths within member population and discuss process changes 
• Develop, lead, and/or participate in a multi-payer collaborative pilot project in a small state or within a large delivery system
• Provide education/training to health plan staff involved in suicide care
• Track the cost of intentional injury claims internally