The Bowman Family Foundation (“BFF”) is a private foundation qualifying as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The primary mission of BFF is to improve the lives of people with mental health and substance use ("MHSU") conditions. BFF also provides funding to support the education and welfare of children.
BFF is the Managing Member of the Mental Health Treatment and Research Institute LLC (“MHTARI”), a tax-exempt subsidiary of BFF which conducts most BFF activities regarding MHSU conditions.
MHTARI provides funding to support projects, reports and the development of materials and tools related to:
1. Improving health equity – e.g., access to MHSU treatment for people who receive inadequate or no care due to financial or other barriers
2. Improving the effectiveness and availability of digital health "apps" intended to help people with MHSU conditions
BFF and MHTARI do not, themselves, provide or evaluate treatments or conduct clinical trials.
Newest Release:
Report regarding a patient-experience survey conducted by NORC, as well as several related studies by others:
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Press Release – New Patient Survey Shows Pervasive Disparities in Access Between Mental Health and Substance Use Versus Physical Health Care: Leading mental health and employer groups come together around health system solutions for the nation's "staggering public health challenge" in mental health |
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Quotes from Organizations Supporting Recommendations of Report |
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Report – Equitable Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Care: An Urgent Need: Patient-experience survey shows stark access barriers for mental health versus physical health |
Improving Health Equity
BFF is a founding partner of The Path Forward for Mental Health and Substance Use, a unique national initiative to achieve health equity for all Americans using a market-driven approach to implementing five key reforms. These reforms will dramatically improve access to, and the quality of, behavioral healthcare.
The following tools and material, funded by MHTARI or other organizations, are intended to assist employers, third party administrators, regulatory agencies, accreditation organizations and others in (i) assessing access to care, quality of care and the cost of care, (ii) ensuring compliance with parity laws, and (iii) gaining awareness of evidence-based approaches that can improve access to, and the effectiveness of, behavioral healthcare while reducing total healthcare costs.
A. Path Forward Materials
B. Network Adequacy – ensuring access to in-network MHSU providers
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B1. 2019 Updated and Expanded Milliman Disparities Research Report, entitled: Addiction and mental health vs. physical health: Widening disparities in network use and reimbursement; A deeper analytical dive and updated results through 2017 for 37 million employees and dependents |
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B2. Model Data Request Form (MDRF) – used by employers and employer coalitions in requesting targeted, quantitative data from third party administrators for assessment of access to in-network behavioral health providers. A variant of the MDRF is used by several state regulators (see E4). This form will be updated from time to time. |
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B2(a). MDRF – clicking this link will download a Word document to your computer that contains embedded Excel files |
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B3. Data from Surveys of Patients Regarding Access to MHSU Care |
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