Celebrating One Year as the Behavioral Health Administrative Organization

On July 1, 2025, the Iowa Primary Care Association (Iowa PCA) assumed the role as Iowa’s Behavioral Health Administrative Organization (BH-ASO). We’ve focused this first year on building a strong foundation to support the seven behavioral health districts and the broader Behavioral Health Service System (BHSS). Working in collaboration with Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS), we’ve accomplished some significant milestones in just 12 months.  

• Launched System Navigation: System Navigators connect Iowans, caretakers, providers, and community organizations to resources and supports for mental health, substance use disorders, housing, transportation, and other factors that impact health and wellbeing. 

  • Total call received since July 1, 2025: 52,916  

  • Number of locations with in-person System Navigation: 34 

  • Total number of system navigators across Iowa: 49 

• Connected Locally: The Iowa PCA hired team members throughout the state, supporting the BHSS in many ways and ensuring local representation in all seven districts. This includes subject matter experts for recovery, early intervention and treatment, prevention and promotion, crisis services, and justice involved. 

• Engaged District Advisory Councils: Established District Advisory Council across all seven districts, allowing for engagement with council members and stakeholder input from the general public.   

• Simplified Administration & Expanded Reach: Throughout the first year, we focused on deploying a model that supports the system in many ways. 

  • Contracted providers were paid in a timely manner, with improved consistency in processes including billing, reporting, and system navigation. 

  • Maintained legacy services and expanded statewide services in specific domains: system navigation, jail-based behavioral health. and school-based behavioral health. 

  • Collaborated with cross-sector partners: providers, law enforcement, public health, courts, hospitals, and community members. 

• Deployed Training & Technical Assistance: We hosted trainings to support people and organizations across the system.

  • Provided NAMI and SolutionPoint+ resources to host trainings, including Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and Crisis Deescalation.  

  • Two financial symposiums were held on June 29 and 30, focusing on practical strategies to strengthen financial stability, respond to operational challenges, and support long-term sustainability in mission-driven organizations. 

• Conducted Assessments and Planning: 

  • Completed district assessments to inform planning and priorities for FY27 and beyond.  

  • Conducted guided conversations to understand real-world challenges. 

  • Gathered broad stakeholder input through meetings, surveys, conversations, community coalitions, other events, and the District Advisory Council meetings. 
    

What’s Next
In year two and beyond, the behavioral health system will move from gathering information to using it to drive meaningful change. Improved data collection, system navigation tracking, and reporting will help identify what is working and where gaps remain, while feedback from District Advisory Councils, providers, and communities will be used to set clear priorities and inform targeted strategies at the district and state levels. Increased collaboration, ongoing stakeholder engagement, transparent communication, and regular updates on progress will support continuous quality improvement, strengthen network adequacy, and ensure the system remains responsive to evolving community needs. 

We know that the work facing Iowa’s behavioral health system is too large for any one organization to solve alone. Partnerships with organizations across the state have been vital in our first year of work. We learned a lot this year from the many conversations we’ve had across the state with providers and partners. It is impressive what is being done to support the behavioral health system and we are honored to do this work in collaboration with so many others across Iowa! Thank you for hosting and engaging with our teams. We look forward to our future collaboration to support the well-being of Iowans.