Why Children's Behavioral Health demands action now. May 13, 2026 Practical strategies for Medicaid, schools, Hospitals, and communities. During Children's Mental Health Awareness Week, May 3-9, and Mental Health Awareness Month, Health Management Associates, Inc. is spotlighting actionable solutions across the US children's behavioral health system. This post is intended for children's behavioral health providers, state Medicaid agencies, school-based health centers, hospitals, local government agencies, local education agencies (LEAs), child welfare agencies, and philanthropic organizations that are working to strengthen prevention, crisis response, care coordination, and community-based continuums of care. HMA has a robust and growing team of behavioral health experts who support this work and have developed a series of case studies showcasing practical strategies implemented with clients - from crisis system design and referral pathway improvements to financing and implementation roadmaps. Children's Mental Health Awareness Week is a reminder that children's behavioral health and youth mental health are not niche issues. They are systemic issues that require coordinated action across Medicaid, education, public health, hospitals and health systems, child welfare, and local government - especially where schools and community partners are on the front line. The need remains substantial. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey results, released in 2024, showed that 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, even as some measures improved from 2021 levels. CDC also highlighted how bullying, safety concerns at school, racism, unfair discipline, and frequent social media use are tied to youth mental health risks. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released in 2025, adds another important dimension. Among adolescents ages 12-17, the 2024 survey found that: * 15.4% experienced a major depressive episode within the past year * 10.1% had serious thoughts of suicide * About 40% who had a major depressive episode in the past year did not receive mental health treatment The data show that progress is possible when systems respond with real capacity, access, and support. That is why this moment calls for more than awareness. It calls for action that is operational, financeable, and grounded in what works. At HMA, Health Management Associates, Inc. work with child-serving systems that are trying to solve real problems, including how to strengthen crisis response, improve referral pathways, build a more coherent continuum of care, and connect strategy with implementation. Over the coming weeks, Health Management Associates, Inc. will feature three examples that reflect different parts of the children's behavioral health landscape. 1. Children's hospital mental health strategy and crisis response This case study will highlight work to help a children's hospital strengthen its mental health approach and support next-stage crisis system design. In this engagement, HMA partnered with Rady Children's Hospital Orange County to move pediatric behavioral health from strategy to implementation - aligning emergency department (ED) mental health workflows, clarifying pediatric crisis pathways, building an investment-ready fiscal pro forma, and advancing priority programs to strengthen access and care coordination. This work can inform hospitals and health systems, Medicaid agencies, and community partners seeking to reduce ED boarding and improve pediatric crisis response. 2. County-level ecosystem and referral system improvement This case study will show how local systems can bring multiple stakeholders together to improve referral pathways and make behavioral health more accessible for children, youth, and families. HMA supported a county-led effort to strengthen cross-system referral pathways by aligning agencies around shared intake and triage practices, clearer roles and accountability, and more navigable access points for families. This approach is relevant for local government agencies, LEAs, school-based health centers, child welfare agencies, and community providers working to reduce fragmentation and speed connection to the right level of care. 3. Building a stronger children's behavioral health continuum in New Orleans This case study will focus on assessing gaps, identifying opportunities, and supporting a more coherent community-based continuum for children's behavioral health. HMA helped deliver the first integrated view of pediatric behavioral health in New Orleans, LA, aligning schools, healthcare, philanthropy, and government around a shared understanding of unmet needs and critical system gaps, as well as charting a prioritized roadmap to strengthen and better coordinate the continuum of care. What It Means for Key Child-Serving Audiences * Children's behavioral health providers: Prepare for stronger care coordination expectations (warm handoffs, follow-up after crisis, shared care plans) and increased demand for community-based alternatives to the ED * State Medicaid agencies: Focus on financeable crisis continuums (including pediatric crisis response), payment and contracting approaches that support access and continuity, and data/reporting that demonstrates outcomes * School-based health centers and LEAs: Strengthen referral pathways, clarify roles between schools and providers, and build protocols that support early identification while keeping students connected to safe learning environments * Hospitals and health systems: Improve pediatric ED mental health workflows, create clearer crisis pathways, and develop investment-ready business cases for behavioral health capacity and partnerships * Local government agencies: Convene cross-system partners, establish shared intake/triage and accountability, and use implementation roadmaps to move from planning to operational change * Child welfare agencies: Align behavioral health access for children and youth involved with child welfare, reduce handoff failures, and integrate crisis planning into placement stability and permanency strategies * Philanthropy: Target catalytic investments that fill continuum gaps, build capacity for implementation (not just planning), and support cross-system governance and measurement The common thread among these examples is a simple belief: Children's behavioral health improvement does not happen through aspiration alone. It happens when organizations and public systems translate urgency into design, partnerships, financing strategies, and implementation steps. That is also why children's behavioral health is so relevant. National data still point to high levels of distress and suicide risk among adolescents, despite recent improvements. CDC's findings show how strongly youth mental health is shaped by the environments in which they live, learn, and play - especially their schools and communities. For leaders in Medicaid, behavioral health, child welfare, education, county government, hospitals, and provider organizations, the question is not whether children's behavioral health deserves attention, but rather is how to build systems that respond earlier, coordinate better, and support children and families more effectively. Health Management Associates, Inc. hope this series contributes to that conversation by sharing practical examples of work that can inform future action. Other Resources on Children's Behavioral Health and Youth Mental Health Contact Health Management Associates, Inc. to discuss how HMA can support your children's behavioral health strategy - whether you work for a Medicaid agency, hospital/health system, school-based health partner, LEA, local government agency, child welfare agency, provider organization, or philanthropic funder. Health Management Associates, Inc. can help with crisis continuum planning, care coordination design, referral pathway improvement, financing and pro forma development, and implementation support.

CMS Quality Conference 2026: CMS signals a faster path from policy to practice in quality. April 9, 2026 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) convened the CMS Quality Conference 2026 (QualCon) at a moment when healthcare quality policy is increasingly being shaped through formal rulemaking as well as informal policy signals and implementation vehicles. The discussions reflected CMS's core priorities - wellness and prevention, digital infrastructure, patient safety, and program integrity - and reinforced a broader theme that CMS intends to continue to move faster to advance these priorities than traditional regulatory timelines allow. Health Management Associates (HMA) experts attended QualCon and are working with healthcare organizations as they interpret these signals and prepare to implement the policy priorities highlighted during the conference. This article describes these cross-cutting issues and highlights strategies and actions healthcare entities can take now. Moving Faster Requires Different Approaches to Policy and Implementation CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz emphasized CMS's increasing use of voluntary commitments, public-private collaboration, Requests for Information (RFIs), and other informal policy tools as alternatives or precursors to formal requirements, creating an imperative for early stakeholder engagement. * CMS leaders highlighted stakeholder convenings as a key vehicle to drive change outside of regulatory processes, including the pledge by health plans to streamline and improve prior authorization requirements. These commitments may signal future regulatory mandates and shifts in the marketplace. * The CMS Health Tech Ecosystem provides the foundation for quality initiatives. The CMS Administrator highlighted the 600-plus organizations that have committed to the goals of the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem, including companies that support conversational artificial intelligence (AI) assistants that would make ingestion and sharing of data with healthcare providers easier through the "Kill the Clipboard" efforts, and have pledged to support interoperability. * CMS is using listening sessions and RFIs to shape the direction and drive quality policy. The agency leaders invited new ideas and reinforced the value of feedback received through RFIs, citing examples such as the 2025 RFI on the Health Technology Ecosystem, Medicare Advantage improvements, and the RFI on Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare (CRUSH). CMS leaders also convened sessions pertaining to patient safety, dialysis care, and best practices for medication for treatment of opioid use disorder, signaling these are areas under consideration for policy development. Health and Wellness Positioned as a Core Component of Quality Efforts QualCon prominently featured CMS's commitment to promoting health and wellness. Dr. Oz discussed underutilization of existing benefits, such as annual wellness visits, and CMS Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare, Chris Klomp, focused on community-based approaches to prevention. Mr. Klomp also spoke of ongoing interest in moving physician payment toward primary care and away from specialty procedures. CMS officials highlighted new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center) models, such as ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) and Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence (MAHA ELEVATE), which are aligned with the Administrator's policy priority of empowering patients. CMS officials also acknowledged challenges to behavioral change and the levers CMS is employing in new models, including technology and incentives for beneficiaries, partnerships, and community health workers. Digital Infrastructure Framed as Necessary for Quality Reforms QualCon also emphasized making quality measurement fully digital, specifically using FHIR(R)(Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) specifications. Agency officials reported having FHIR specifications for 70+ measures and characterized FHIR as the standard for new measures. Use of FHIR aligns with broader interoperability rules, including one requiring state Medicaid programs and payers participating in public programs to use FHIR for electronic prior authorization by January 2027. Quality measurement leaders spoke about the value of integrating quality data in real time and the move from "lagged scorecards" to "continuous intelligence." Notably, attendees expressed enthusiasm about the potential for AI to support measurement and personalization of quality, measures addressing trajectories of care over time, and new approaches to risk adjustment. Application of AI to Patient Safety Is on the Horizon Patient safety discussions focused on the potential for AI-enabled tools to identify risk earlier and prevent harm, particularly with regard to medication safety and error prevention. CMS speakers emphasized that realizing these gains depends on intentional governance, standardized workflows, and patient involvement in AI development and deployment. Rather than positioning AI as a substitute for clinical judgment, sessions framed it as an augmentation tool requiring clear safeguards and accountability. Avoiding Fraud, Waste, and Abuse CMS leaders noted the potential to avoid fraud, waste, and abuse through a cross-functional fraud detection center that can analyze claims in real time. CMS also discussed collaboration with states and private insurers and encouraged external input. Medicaid Discussions Medicaid received more limited attention at this conference. CMS Medicaid officials reiterated interest in having fewer quality measures and engaged in discussion with state leaders on how to focus quality efforts. They highlighted learnings about the Medicaid early, periodic, screening, diagnosis, and treatment (EPSDT) program and from CMS Innovation Center models centered on maternal health and substance use disorder care. What Health Management Associates, Inc. is Watching Next Following QualCon HMA experts are continuing to follow several federal quality-related initiatives that affect plans, health systems, states, and other healthcare delivery organizations include: * How CMS translates voluntary commitments and Health Tech Ecosystem initiatives into lasting policy expectations for transforming quality * The pace at which digital quality measurement shifts from pilot to standard practice * How AI governance frameworks evolve alongside additional real-world use cases in quality and safety Connect with Us HMA, including Leavitt Partners and Wakely, work with healthcare organizations to navigate the transition to digital quality measurement and act upon digital quality data to improve healthcare delivery. Wakely uses analytics-driven operating design and return on investment (ROI) analysis, clinical data acquisition models and tools, and pilot-based validation of measure rates and processing performance to support scalable digital quality measurement (dQM) adoption, as outlined in the dQM Playbook. Leavitt Partners is working with federal agencies on a number of activities related to the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem and interoperability, including the Kill the Clipboard initiative, which was informed by a seminal Leavitt Partners white paper. In addition, Leavitt Partners convenes the Digital Quality Implementers Community, which is working to solve both technical and policy issues in digital quality measurement. For details, contact its experts below.

Trilegal has advised Health Management Associates, a US-based health and human services consulting firm, on its acquisition of HTS India and Indian law aspects of acquiring HealthTech Solutions and its subsidiaries, a Medicaid-focused technology and analytics provider. The firm conducted legal due diligence on HTS India, drafted and negotiated transaction documents for the India-level transfer, and closed the Indian leg of the global acquisition. Trilegal will continue providing post-closing assistance. The transaction team was led by partner Sibani Saxena, with additional teams handling employment, tax, and secretarial matters led by partners Apeksha Mattoo, Komal Dani, and Sampath Kumar respectively.