Supporting Behavioral Health in Older Adults: Provider Tools and Resources

A variety of toolkits are available on Optum’s providerexpress.com to help you address the behavioral health needs of your older adult patients.

These include but are not limited to:

• Screening tools for depression and anxiety, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, cognitive impairment, and PTSD and other trauma-related conditions
• Clinical guidelines and best practices for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care, chronic pain management, suicide prevention, and medication adherence strategies for depression and psychosis
• Treatment guideposts for conditions such as bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, substance use disorders and schizophrenia
• Provider training tools
  • Behavioral Health Identification, Treatment and Referral in Primary Care: 3-Part On-Demand Series – register for and complete this webcast series to earn CME credit
  • Optum Health Education – explore live and on-demand education options on various topics for CME/CE credit

As a reminder, NCQA updated two HEDIS^® care measures for 2025 for post-discharge mental health appointments within seven days of discharge. Follow-up care is not limited to a licensed mental health provider. Both medical providers and non-licensed mental health providers can close gaps by conducting the appointments.

New services and codes are allowed, including:

See full billing and service code lists:

Follow-up After Hospitalization (FUH) for Mental Illness Billing Code List

Follow-up After Emergency Department Visit for Mental Illness (FUM) Billing Code List

Read more about the updated measures.

More Resources for Prevention and Early identification

Behavioral health conditions frequently co-occur with chronic medical illnesses, complicating diagnosis, treatment and patient outcomes, as patients with co-occurring conditions often require coordinated care across systems. Primary care providers are uniquely positioned to identify and manage these comorbidities early. 

A number of resources are available that provide health and wellness information to prevent or improve the prognosis of many behavioral health and chronic medical conditions: