“I don’t have time.”

We know. We help you hire a dedicated health educator, who we train and support. The health educator delivers most care.

“Health plans won’t pay for this.”

Actually Medicaid and 13 commercial health plans in Wisconsin have reimbursed when health educators have delivered these services under the supervision of credentialed providers. Medicaid reimburses $35 for each brief assessment (~10 minutes) and $20 for each 15-minute intervention. Delivering just 6 assessments and 2 interventions per day can more than pay for a health educator’s compensation, leaving them with several hours to generate more revenue or deliver unreimbursed services.

“This will interfere with my workflow.”

We’ve worked with over 30 healthcare settings. None of them have found that these services hinder workflow.

“My patients might get angry.”

Patients report high satisfaction with these services. Our health educators respect patients’ right to refuse services.

“Patients won’t own up to binge drinking or drug use.”

Actually the prevalence of positive screens matches very closely with the population prevalence among Wisconsin participants in a national survey. About 30% of patients screen positive for binge drinking and 5% for illicit drug use.

“There’s nowhere to refer patients who need help, anyway.”

The vast majority of patients helped by BSI don’t need to be referred. Behavior change often happens after one brief intervention delivered by a health educator. In fact, the screening itself moves patients toward positive change.