When/Will Consumer Directed Healthcare Impact Behavioral Health?

At Netsmart Connections we spent time talking about the trend toward consumer centric care and involving the consumer in the care process.  We discusssed consumer portals that provide consumers with access to their electronic health record and medication histories.   

As part of that discussion we looked at how the cost of healthcare is impacting the US economy and several changes to the system that are being proposed to address the problem.  Yesterday I had a conversation with Ryan Daniels from William Blair, Netsmart's investment banker.  I have attached two of Ryan's market analyses (his 2007 and 2008 updates on the CDHC impacts to the healthcare provider markets) in which he looks at how Consumer Directed Healthcare (CDHC) is or will be affecting the primary care marketplace.  Although these reports look at primary care primarily, he does speak about how some behavioral healthcare providers are well positioned going forward because they are less dependent on government funding.  This does not apply directly to many of you, but is a trend worth following as we often see funding approaches that are first tried on the primay care market work thier way into the behavioral health markets.

The question to be discussed is if and/or when this trend will impact behavioral health and public health.  I have had several discussions down in Washington as to how these trends will impact the medicaid and indigent populations and I have gotten several different answers:  1) it wont; 2) they will be treated differently; 3) thier HSAs will be managed by someone for them.   It is not clear where this is going, but it is a trend very much worth watching. 

If anyone has any input please contribute to the group.