In many workers’ compensation cases, behavioral health is a serious concern that is too often unaddressed. This has become especially true now, when cases have become more complex than ever. For example, the most serious COVID-19 patients have to deal with increased social isolation and intensive care, leading to stress, anxiety, depression and a host of other problems, in addition to the disease itself.

No matter what the diagnosis, there is evidence that the cost of treating the physical health of an injured worker can be up to three times higher* if there are underlying behavioral health issues involved. One of the most effective ways to tackle this problem is to adopt a broad and proactive biopsychosocial approach that addresses the whole patient and seeks to identify potential social and behavioral health risk factors as early as possible.

That’s why our Catastrophic Care Management division is partnering with AiRCare Health, a leader in data-driven behavioral healthcare. This new relationship will deepen our ability to deliver psychosocial support for injured workers and their families. By identifying underlying behavioral health issues earlier, we’ll be able to better support the optimal recovery of catastrophically injured workers and their families.

Hands-on behavioral support to identify and care for at-risk patients

AiRCare community support specialists have been added to the Paradigm management teams to support patients and their families from day one. These highly skilled behavioral health professionals will work closely with the dedicated Paradigm network manager and injured worker to provide behavioral health support, remove barriers to recovery, and proactively identify and coordinate additional community support resources. And for all cases involving COVID-19, a community support specialist will play an integral role on the Paradigm management team to identify strategies to support the injured worker’s recovery from a psychosocial perspective.

To achieve optimal outcomes, the community support specialist assists injured workers and their families with a broad spectrum of needs, including:

• Emotional health
• Substance abuse
• Financial burdens
• Food scarcity
• Childcare

In the current environment, it takes more resources than ever before to manage today’s heightened behavioral health challenges. We’ve built our model on a Whole Person, Whole Family approach that uses assessment tools to cover medical, surgical, and biological issues balanced with a person’s emotional well-being, family, and community dynamics. Paradigm is able to accomplish this by leveraging a substantial outcomes database that has been curated over the last 30 years.

A perfect partnership for the best outcomes

The collaborative partnership between Paradigm and AiRCare will use AiRCare’s data capabilities to stratify risk and identify the best clinical interventions and care for injured workers. We believe these capabilities will strongly complement our established Expert-Driven, Data-Guided (EDDG) platform. This industry-leading proprietary system was designed from the ground up to deliver insights and analytics to identify methods to achieve the maximum restorative recovery possible for catastrophically injured workers.

Additionally, the Paradigm Biopsychosocial Indicator, a predictive assessment tool used at the outset of new cases, provides insights into whether an injured worker is at high-risk for psychosocial challenges that may complicate recovery. The indicator, which serves as a key input for the EDDG platform, identifies patterns of risk and seeks to illuminate a patient’s resilience, family and peer support, economic situation, and other factors that could impact recovery and functional outcomes. Moving forward, we’re excited to work closely with AirCare to further refine and improve this already robust behavioral toolkit.

With our highly aligned values, Paradigm and AiRCare Health share a deep commitment to the emotional health of the people we serve and their families. By forming a partnership that enhances Paradigm’s whole person, whole family approach, we’re confident that we’ll be stronger together as we optimize support during the recovery process and promote better long-term outcomes.

You can learn more about this exciting partnership here.

*  “The Five Most Costly Conditions, 1996 and 2006: Estimates for the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population,” Soni, A., Statistical Brief #248. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2009.