Integrated care is the addition of behavioral health to management of patient with a physical injury or illness. The integrated care model shows positive outcomes from early intervention to later treatment of chronic pain and opioid dependence/addiction and PTSD delayed recovery.
Claimants within three categories can be successfully managed within the integrated care model
- Claimants with no objective pain generator whose subjective complaints outweigh the objective findings
- Claimants with positive findings of a pain generator who can benefit from cognitive-behavioral pain management techniques for pain control and desensitization of the biopsychosocial pain magnifiers.
- Claimants who may be opioid dependent, addicted or drug seeking and Best Practices medical management entails tapering the opioids and polypharmacy