AUTHOR=Petrovsky Maxim , Damodaran Swathi , Lim Christopher T. 

TITLE=Addressing community mental health needs in the United States: a comparison of the federal Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic and Massachusetts Community Behavioral Health Center models

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Health Services

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/health-services/articles/10.3389/frhs.2025.1681093

DOI=10.3389/frhs.2025.1681093

ISSN=2813-0146

ABSTRACT=The United States has long sought to create a scalable community mental health and substance use continuum. Federal Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) have grown to be the dominant model for comprehensive community mental health services across the US since 2014. In parallel, the state of Massachusetts established its Community Behavioral Health Center (Massachusetts CBHC) model, going live in 2023. Central to both models is a foundational outpatient clinic offering multidisciplinary health and social services that utilizes a bundled payment structure—typically a day-rate or, in some cases for CCBHCs, a monthly rate—eschewing a traditional fee-for-service payment structure. These models differ in other aspects of their clinical models, federal financial support, and provider payment mechanisms.