BHCOE Announces James Craig as Director of Payor Relations


Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE) is excited to welcome James Craig, MSW, LCSW, MBA as Director of Payor Relations. James joined the organization on July 1st and brings more than twenty years’ experience in managed behavioral health care programs focused on the improvement of quality and effectiveness.

“James’ expertise in understanding the payor perspective of administering the ABA benefit is equaled with his reputation for working collaboratively with clinical service providers.” says Sara Litvak, Chief Executive Officer of BHCOE. “We are excited to partner with James as we pursue our mission to dramatically improve the quality of care for patients across the world.”

Formerly, James was Corporate Vice President for Autism Services at Beacon Health Options, the largest autism services managed care provider in the US with over 11,000 cases and covering 13 million lives. In this role he was responsible for product development, program design and implementation, network strategy, and continuous improvement of clinical services delivered to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and their families, and supported the Beacon clinical teams throughout the United States.

James has held numerous positions in managed behavioral health care including the Director of Behavioral Operations at Accolade, a then start-up concierge company specializing in integrated approaches to support medical and behavioral health decision making for consumers. Prior to Accolade he served as General Manager for Behavioral Health at Aetna for the eastern United States where he was responsible for health plans and self-insured customers. In this capacity James developed the first Autism Case Management model in fulfillment of the emerging state mandates.

“Over the years I have gained tremendous respect for the work of BHCOE to bring a high level of quality to applied behavior analysis services,” says Craig. “The field has grown very quickly to meet the tremendous demand for ABA services, and I hope to educate payors on the determinants of quality for behavior analysis organizations which we now understand are predictive of better service delivery and outcomes.”

About BHCOE Accreditation

BHCOE Accreditation is a trusted source that recognizes behavioral health organizations committed to continuous quality improvement. BHCOE offers a third-party measurement system that differentiates and provides independent feedback on clinical quality indicators. The BHCOE criterion features standards that subject-matter experts developed to measure effective applied behavior analysis services.

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