Aligning training, regulation, and payment policy to advance the behavioral health workforce

Aligning training, regulation, and payment policy to advance the behavioral health workforce, in Health Affairs Scholar

key takeaway: "Training, regulation, and payment policies are often not aligned to effectively deploy the workforce to serve in new or expanded roles to meet behavioral health needs. We envision training, regulation, and payment as a three-legged stool that supports the health care workforce. In this commentary, we discuss why each leg of the stool is essential, offer examples of how misalignment occurs in the behavioral health workforce, and provide an example of how states can align these three factors to meet community behavioral health needs."