CareFirst and Children's National Hospital Join Forces to Transform Youth Healthcare
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) and Children's National Hospital (Children's National) proudly hosted the first-ever Pediatric Mental Health Summit in Washington, D.C. This event supports our two organizations' ongoing work to support youth mental health and our new alliance, formed in response the 2021 U.S. Surgeon General advisory that detailed an urgent public health crisis of the mental health of children and young adults.
CareFirst and Children's National entered our payer-provider alliance in direct response to the crisis and centered the work around our common values and commitment to improving health outcomes in our shared communities. Our vision for this alliance is simple: equitable health outcomes for every child. Our alliance focuses on three key areas: value-based care, community health and social impact, and member benefits.
The event, hosted at the Children's National Research and Innovation Campus, brought together industry leaders to discuss the youth mental health crisis, what is being done to address critical challenges in the mental health space and opportunities for future work.
"Early intervention at every stage is crucial for kids before they're in crisis and we must make sure every child has ongoing access to the care that they need. We have made great strides, but we must do more."
Michelle Riley-Brown
President and CEO, Children's National
"We can't just focus on point of care; we have to focus on point of need. We're talking about real people, real families in real communities—and that's what this is all about."
Brian D. Pieninck
President and CEO, CareFirst
In 2022, our organizations collaborated to form the country's largest commercial pediatric advanced care organization (ACO) to advance value-based care in the pediatric space. The work strives to reduce the overall cost of care by incentivizing improved outcomes. The ACO serves over 50,000 pediatric members and engages a provider network of over 1,500 primary care physicians and specialists across Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia. We're redefining our member benefits to tackle disparities in healthcare, including benefit education, examination of existing benefits to ensure people get the most appropriate care at the lowest costs, and creating Centers for Excellence through Blue Distinction Centers for specialty programs.
Additionally, our alliance prioritizes community health beyond pediatric mental health, focusing on innovative programming tied to community-based initiatives. Our "Start Strong New Onset Diabetes Program," a three-year pilot program, was born out of the collaboration of both CareFirst and Children's National to focus on improving diabetes care through early diagnosis to lessen vulnerability and severity and improve long-term positive health outcomes. CareFirst will proudly contribute funding to reduce barriers in diabetes management such as transportation, education, prescription issues, insulin shortages and more.
The CareFirst and Children's National Pediatric Mental Health Summit brought together different voices and perspectives of leaders from across the region who are all committed to not only discussing the issues that impact pediatric mental health care, but also eager to implement transformative solutions that will move us forward, creating a brighter, more thriving place for our communities. The event featured three impactful panels: How We Got Here, Where We Are Now, and Where We Are Going.
"Kids do not exist in isolation. Kids only exist in the context of their relationships, good or challenging, and that thinking comes into play when we are thinking about how to address youth behavioral health."
Dr. Sunny Patel, MD, MPH,
Senior Advisor for Children, Youth and Families
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA)
"Children's mental health is important not only for individual children, but we're thinking about it holistically and across the country. We recognize that children are more open to accessing behavioral health care and they're asking that we take them into consideration when we're developing resources so we can make sure it meets their needs. Everyone has a role to play."
Patsy Cunningham, MA, NCC, LCPC,
Behavioral Health Advisor
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
"The real experts are families with the lived experiences and the communities around us. We can't do this alone, and it would be unwise for us to do this alone. By working together, we can build the strongest foundation for children and families to develop the things that go into ensuring that children from very early ages are supported."
Dr. Lee Beers,
Former President,
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
How We Got Here
- Angela Kimball, Inseperable
- Jennifer Cannistra, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Dr. Sunny Patel, MD, MPH , Children, Youth and Families, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA)
- Hannah Katch, Office of the Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. HHS
- Patsy Cunningham, MA, NCC, LCPC, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Where We Are Now
- Oleg Tarkovsky, CareFirst
- Dr. Lee Beers, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
- Dr. Tami Benton, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)
- Leah Evangelista, Children's Hospital Association
Where We Are Going
- Tonya Vidal Kinlow, Children's National
- Purvee Kempf, DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority
- Laura Goodman, MPH, Medicaid Office of Innovation, Research and Development, Maryland Department of Health
- Dr. J. Corey Williams, MD, MA, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Ally Singer Wright, Virginia Mental Health Access Program (VMAP)
- Gail Avent, Total Family Care Coalition
CareFirst is proud to work alongside local and government leaders to find new, innovative ways to best support our shared communities and address challenges in mental and behavioral health care. We're energized by the conversations we have in spaces like the Pediatric Mental Health Summit, and we're committed to creating more opportunities for community leaders to connect and have these essential conversations.
Read more on CareFirst and Children's National's alliance here.
To learn more about our efforts to transform the healthcare experience, please check out our 2023 Mission Report.
