Beacon Health Strategies, LLC (Beacon) was founded in 1996 by Elizabeth “Betsy” Pattullo, M.Ed. and Deborah Nelson, Ph.D. with a mission to partner with health plans, consumers, providers, employers, advocates and regulators to improve the health and social outcomes of individuals with behavioral health care needs and to ensure the most efficient use of health care dollars to meet those needs.

Beacon’s co-founder Betsy Pattullo is a pioneer in the development, implementation and administration of publicly funded behavioral health managed care programs. Betsy served as the Executive Director for the country’s first ever statewide capitated program for Medicaid behavioral health services in 1992. In this leadership position, Betsy led a then $250 million program that provided comprehensive utilization management for 450,000 beneficiaries delivered through a statewide network of over 1,500 providers. From this vantage point, she gained invaluable experience and perspective in understanding best practices in administering behavioral health care programs. Dr. Nelson ceased being a member of Beacon in 2008 and is pursuing other interests. During Dr. Nelson’s tenure with the company, Beacon experienced significant growth.

During the past eleven years, Beacon has delivered on its founder’s belief that behavioral health services can be provided in a more efficient and effective manner. Presently, Beacon provides services to approximately 1.8 million members on behalf of a variety of health plans. Beacon’s “carved in” approach with its partners allows for the coordinated delivery of behavioral health services. In turn, this approach improves the lives of individuals and their families and helps health plans better integrate behavioral health with medical health in order to manage financial resources more effectively.

Today, Beacon specializes in the development and management of mental health and substance abuse programs for Commercial, Medicaid and Medicare populations. Beacon’s Core service offerings include: