Name
Plenary Session - Right-Sizing Psychiatric Consultation: Aligning Clinical Impact, Workflow, and Financial Sustainability in Integrated Care
Speakers
Date & Time
Wednesday, May 6, 2026, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Description
How much psychiatric consultation is enough—and for whom? Using real-world case examples, this interactive session explores how different levels of psychiatric consultation can be strategically deployed to meet clinical, operational, and financial goals across integrated behavioral health settings.
Abstract
Psychiatric consultation is a powerful but finite resource in integrated care, and how it is structured matters—for patients, care teams, health systems, and communities. In this interactive session, participants will engage with case-based examples from primary care and specialty medical settings to examine how varying levels of psychiatric consultation (from indirect support to embedded and population-level models) can be intentionally matched to specific clinical needs, workflow realities, and financial constraints. The session will highlight practical approaches to financial benchmarking, including common and innovative funding and staffing strategies, while surfacing tradeoffs related to access, fidelity, provider support, and sustainability. Attendees will leave with a clearer framework for “right-sizing” psychiatric consultation to advance patient outcomes, team function, administrative efficiency, and system-level value in integrated behavioral health.
Session Type
Concurrent
Objective 1
Distinguish key levels of psychiatric consultation in integrated care and match them to clinical needs and workflow demands using case examples.
Objective 2
Apply financial benchmarking to assess the impact of psychiatric consultation models on access, efficiency, and sustainability.
Objective 3
Select strategies to align psychiatric consultation structures with clinical, operational, and administrative goals across integrated care settings.
Content Reference 1
Feinstein, R., Connelly, J., & Feinstein, M. (Eds.). (2017). Integrating behavioral health and primary care. Oxford University Press.
Content Reference 2
Bauer, A. M., Williams, M. D., Ratzliff, A., & Unützer, J. (2019). Best practices for systematic case review in collaborative care. Psychiatric Services, 70(11), 1064-1067.
Content Reference 3
Raney, L. E. (2015). Integrating primary care and behavioral health: the role of the psychiatrist in the collaborative care model. American Journal of Psychiatry, 172(8), 721-728.
