NCQA Applauds the First Two Organizations to Earn CCBHC Accreditation

Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) fill a critical need in the community by providing behavioral health and substance use services to 3.4 million people in the United States. A new report from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing shows that CCBHCs improve access and outcomes in the communities they serve.

To become a CCBHC and maintain funding, organizations must meet Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) certification criteria that evaluate key components of service delivery such as staffing, accessibility of services, care coordination, quality improvement and governance.

NCQA launched a CCBHC Accreditation Program in 2024 to help CCBHCs demonstrate the value of their work, evaluate program quality and ensure continuous quality improvement.

“As standards for CCBHCs become more rigorous, and more states opt to maximize Medicaid for CCBHC funding, there is a need for independent accreditation—beyond self-attestation,” says Jeni Soucie, Senior Manager of Product Management at NCQA. “We want to support CCBHCs in the important work they are doing in the community and amplify their efforts.”

Two Organizations Achieve NCQA CCBHC Accreditation

NCQA is pleased to announce that two organizations have recently earned CCBHC Accreditation.

B&D Integrated Health Services

Established in 2005, B&D Integrated Health Services (B&D) provides comprehensive, integrated primary care, behavioral health and substance use services to more than 2,200 people annually. Its mission is to meet the diverse needs of the community by using approaches that are flexible, person-centered, family-focused, culturally responsive and empirically based. B&D demonstrates its commitment to patient-centered care by including patients on its Board of Directors, ensuring their voices guide its future direction.

B&D is one of five CCBHCs funded by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Achieving NCQA Accreditation helps B&D stand out and demonstrate to payers, patients and other stakeholders that it is meeting the SAMHSA standards and providing high-quality care to patients.

“We collaborate with the four other grant-funded CCBHCs in North Carolina, but really there is no gatekeeper saying that we are definitely meeting the criteria,” says Allison Williams, Chief Executive Officer at B&D Integrated Health Services. “So, there’s something rewarding about an organization like NCQA validating our work and saying that we’re definitely meeting the criteria. It’s like yes, you’re doing it right.”

VIP Community Services

Headquartered in the Bronx with facilities across New York City, VIP Community Services (VIP) provides a comprehensive network of support for individuals facing complex health and social challenges. More than 70% of its patients are enrolled in Medicaid and have incomes below the federal poverty guidelines. VIP serves a diverse, multilingual population, including Spanish-speaking and African immigrant communities.

As a multi-service organization, VIP provides integrated primary care and behavioral health services, wraparound housing and shelter programs, vocational training, addiction treatment services and residential substance use disorder programs. Earning NCQA Accreditation instills a continuous quality improvement mindset across the organization and better positions VIP for success in value-based contracting.

“Accreditation is not just going through a process. It is about making transformative changes in your organization,” says Debbian Fletcher-Blake, President and CEO of VIP Community Services. “It’s not just a nice thing to do, it is the right thing to do if you really want to improve the care and services that are provided to the people and the communities you serve.”

Benefits of NCQA’s CCBHC Accreditation

NCQA’s Accreditation program provides a streamlined survey process for CCBHCs. We mapped the 113 SAMHSA criteria to 44 standards to make it easier for CCBHCs to structure their programs. Even though the total number of standards has been reduced, all SAMHSA-required components are addressed. We also developed a readiness assessment and a community needs assessment template that CCBHCs can use to help demonstrate compliance.

“This is more than an Accreditation program; it is about creating infrastructure and capacity in the local delivery system,” said Soucie. “Our program provides tools, templates and education to set CCBHCs up for success, which is important as the CCBHC model continues to grow.”

Advice for CCBHCs Pursuing Accreditation

Our first two Accredited CCBHCs have many suggestions for other organizations interested in pursuing NCQA Accreditation.

• Gain leadership buy-in. “We were lucky because we had leadership buy-in from the beginning, and that is very important,” says Darcia Bryden-Currie, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at VIP. “It is also critical to engage your multidisciplinary teams early on in the process so everyone sees that Accreditation is an investment in the organization.”
• Focus on the opportunities. “Every organization is going to find areas that need to be improved or strengthened,” says Barbara Salcedo, Director for Quality Improvement Informatics at VIP. “I would advise organizations to lean in and see how close you can come to being that center of excellence for the people you serve.”
• Leverage NCQA’s tools and templates. “We appreciated NCQA’s guidance related to our community needs assessment and we updated our methodology based on their input,” says Williams. “Having a more comprehensive needs assessment is going to inform our strategic planning and ultimately impact the people and communities we serve.”
• Utilize periodic check-ins. “We valued the structure of the three check-ins with NCQA. The feedback we received through that process was very supportive,” says Tanya Hinckle, Quality Management Director at B&D. “NCQA wants us to be the best CCBHC we can be, and they really gave us that foundation. It was very positive.”
• Celebrate your accomplishments. “We display our certificate at our front desk and I think it helps our employees understand how important it is,” says Erin Lewis, Clinical Director at B&D. “It also provides legitimacy for patients and other folks coming in to see that stamp of approval of quality.”

Learn More

• Visit our website to learn more about CCBHC Accreditation.
• Purchase a copy of the CCBHC Accreditation standards in the NCQA Store.
• Contact NCQA’s public policy team to learn more about how NCQA Accreditation can evaluate and improve the quality of CCBHCs in your state.