Blue Cross CEO's resignation sent the wrong message on mental health

In 12-step recovery, we often refer to a “moment of clarity.” This is when, for the first time, it becomes painfully obvious to someone struggling with alcohol that the illness is impacting their daily life in a way that is untenable, or even dangerous.

Patrick Conway, the former CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield North Carolina, had his moment of clarity on June 22, when he crashed his car with his kids in the back seat. Following the accident, Conway immediately told his board, sought treatment, and began the hard work of healing himself and his family. What happened next — his resignation and public scolding by elected officials and others — represents a lost opportunity for an open and honest public discussion about the many faces of addiction.

I want to point out something that was overlooked in coverage of the incident: Patrick Conway has done more to help those battling mental health and substance use disorders than almost anyone else in the last two decades. He has been absolutely instrumental in shaping how we as a nation have confronted illnesses of the brain by working to eliminate stigma and increase access to health care.

While at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, a key area of Patrick’s focus was collaborative care — a game-changing concept that addresses mental health and physical health as equally essential to overall health. Collaborative care pays doctors to communicate with one another, where before, there was little incentive to do so. This means that a patient’s primary care doctor would be incentivized to speak with their psychiatrist, or a pediatrician would be incentivized to speak with a child’s therapist. Better communication means more accurate diagnoses and comprehensive wrap-around treatment strategies. Recent research has shown that collaborative care is effective at improving outcomes and lowering costs.

Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article236902973.html
(Raleigh News & Observer)