Accreditation in managed behavioral health care: an interview with Mary Cesare-Murphy and Claire Sharda. Interview by Gary J. Mihalik.

Accreditation of managed behavioral health care organizations is being driven by the demands of multiple stakeholders in the health care industry. Accreditation is expensive-both in terms of the direct and indirect costs of preparation and survey but also in terms of the consequences of failure. Though accreditation is a new expectation for the managed behavioral health care field, it is unlikely that the major organizations in the industry will have the years to achieve accreditation that the nonbehavioral managed care field enjoyed. This article explores, in an interview format, the managed behavioral health care accreditation programs of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the National Committee for Quality Assurance.