Integrating Behavioral Health and Medical Services into MAP’s Virtual Peer Support Model Offers Added Value and an Integrated Continuum
MAP Health Management, LLC., the leading provider of virtual peer support services, is expanding its capabilities to virtual and in-person primary medical and behavioral healthcare with the acquisition of CARMAhealth (CARMA), a primary care and behavioral health management service organization. As a result of the acquisition, MAP will be able to leverage its peer-led support capabilities to facilitate an integrated continuum of medical services that include primary medicine, behavioral health and care management, designed to promote lasting recovery, encourage self-care, improve treatment outcomes and reduce health care costs.
CARMA is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is operational in Texas, Florida, and Virginia. CARMA delivers a multi-disciplinary and integrated model of care that blends virtual and face-to-face primary care and medical behavioral health services. CARMA’s mission is to create a medical home for patients, families and the communities they serve. CARMA is an acronym for Collaborative Addiction Recovery Management and Assistance.
The relationship between substance use disorders and mental health needs is unquestionable, with data showing that roughly half of those who experience a mental illness during their lives also experience a substance use disorder and vice versa. To further exacerbate this, during the pandemic, adults have reported symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders at an alarming rate of 4 in 10 vs. 1 in 10 pre-pandemic.
Due to the chronic nature of the conditions MAP and CARMA support, patients are managed across a spectrum of acuity and these combined services will allow MAP to more effectively meet patients where they are by mobilizing the right level of support at the right time. MAP’s Peer Support model for behavioral health and substance misuse has proven to deliver greater than 70% monthly patient engagement rates and ultimately result in improved quality of life, reduced recidivism, and costs, such as ER visits.
MAP’s services will continue to be peer-led but, though MAP’s partnership with CARMA’s affiliated practices, will expand to include additional value-added services to support partnerships with substance use and behavioral health providers and payers. MAP’s provider partners in targeted markets will now have access to Medical Director services including 24/7 on-call services and telepsychiatry. Collectively, MAP and CARMA’s practices will enable patient access to: