Common Questions About Integrated Behavioral Health, Answered
May 01, 2023
Updated: April 24, 2025
In this blog you will learn:
- The benefits of integrated behavioral health for patients.
- How integrated behavioral health programs work.
- What primary providers can do to meet their patients’ unique needs.
Why integrated behavioral health?
In a few short years, integrated behavioral health has gained significant traction with primary care providers nationwide. And for good reason: traditional mental health care simply isn’t meeting growing demand. It’s too complex, expensive, and patients often must wait weeks or even months to access care.
Integrated behavioral health flips the script by embedding mental health therapists in primary care practices. The results? Improved clinical outcomes, lower total healthcare costs, and increased patient satisfaction. However, this is a relatively new approach to care in the U.S., and many primary care providers understandably have questions about how it really works.
To answer those questions, let’s explore how integrated behavioral health positively impacts a patient in the primary care setting.
Meet Amy.
Amy is a young, single, working mom grappling with the rising cost of child care, groceries, and other necessities. Juggling the increasing demands of daily life has exhausted her to the point of persisting worry and sadness.
Concerned she may have anxiety and depression, Amy scours the internet for a therapist. But high treatment costs and a three–month wait time have left Amy feeling defeated, alone, and hopeless. She makes an appointment with her trusted primary care provider, but there’s only so much they can do in 15 minutes or less. Her provider considers prescribing antidepressants referring Amy to a mental health professional in the community.
While better than nothing, Amy needs help today. A referral would only put Amy back on another waitlist. Integrating behavioral health services in her preferred primary care practice ensures she can get get the high-quality care she needs.
What can integrated behavioral health services do for patients like Amy?
Integrated behavioral health solves Amy’s problem by placing a social worker, counselor, or other licensed professional in an office at her preferred primary care practice. Conveniently down the hall, she now has someone to discuss her struggles with where she’s most comfortable. No community referrals, weeks- or months-long wait times, or worrying if she’ll ever receive the care she needs.
How does integrated behavioral health work?
Like before, Amy schedules an appointment to see her primary care provider. In the first five minutes of her checkup, her provider administers the PHQ-9 (depression screening tool) and the GAD-7 (anxiety screening tool). Both scores indicate moderate levels of depression and anxiety. Amy also expresses difficulty sleeping, persistent feelings of sadness, and constant worrying. Her provider recommends she see a therapist to discuss her mental health concerns.
Instead of referring to a community specialist, Amy’s provider immediately connects her with the on-site mental health therapist down the hall to begin treatment. Amy’s shares her concerns with the therapist in her first 45-minute appointment. They develop a plan together and schedule a follow-up 15-minute appointment later that month.
In the meantime, the therapist collaborates with Amy’s primary care provider to further develop her treatment plan to address her physical and mental health needs. He also connects with an off-site Psychiatric Consultant for medication recommendations, and shares all of Amy’s pertinent information.
Amy visits the therapist again later that month to check in and assess her progress. She also sees her primary provider who prescribes her an antidepressant based on the Psychiatric Consultant’s recommendations. Amy continues visiting once a her therapist once a month as well as her primary care provider.
After four months of treatment, Amy seems happier, less worried, and more composed. Upon screening again with PHQ–9/GAD–7, her scores drop significantly. Amy is in remission.
With integrated behavioral health, Amy receives mental health services at the same cost as her primary care visits per her insurance. She pays the same copay for each appointment and avoids the additional financial burden of seeing a specialist.
How common is Amy’s story?
Mental health care isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s a “must have.” Amy’s story — and the two fork–in–road scenarios we outlined — isn’t just a story. It’s the story for countless patients. Thankfully, integrated behavioral health is transforming the way healthcare professionals deliver care and improve patient outcomes.
How do I integrate behavioral health services at my practice?
Patients are best served when primary care and behavioral health work together. As the leading provider of integrated behavioral health in the country, evolvedMD has served more than 60,000 unique patients just like Amy, and improved access to care for more than 1 million people across Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida.
With our upfront, ongoing, and in-person approach to integrated behavioral health, your practice becomes a comprehensive solution for treating your patients’ physical and mental health in one place: your practice.