Recognized for Excellence: How Health Plans Evaluate Rosecrance’s Behavioral Healthcare

When people seek behavioral health treatment, quality matters. For individuals and families, finding the right provider is one of the most important decisions they make. For health plans and referring providers, identifying organizations that deliver effective, coordinated, and value-driven care is equally important.

At Rosecrance Behavioral Health, our commitment to quality is reflected not only in what we say about our care, but also in how external healthcare organizations evaluate our services.

Rosecrance has earned recognition from multiple health plans and healthcare organizations, including Evernorth Behavioral Health, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Carrum Health, for the quality and value of our behavioral health services.

For Rosecrance, these recognitions reflect a philosophy that has guided our organization for more than a century: provide compassionate, evidence-based care, measure whether it is working, and continually improve how we serve individuals and families.

What Does “Center of Excellence” Mean?

Health plans have developed their own programs and terminology to identify providers that demonstrate particular measures of quality, outcomes, and value.

Depending on the program, evaluations consider factors such as:

• Clinical outcomes
• Quality and safety
• Evidence-based treatment
• Cost-efficiency and value
• Ability to serve individuals with complex behavioral health needs
• Continuity and coordination of care
• Patient or member experience
• Access to appropriate services
• Readmission and follow-up rates
• Specialized clinical expertise

For example, Evernorth Behavioral Health’s Center of Excellence program evaluates participating in-network facilities using quality and cost-efficiency data. Its 2026 evaluation for inpatient and residential care includes measures such as seven-day and sustained follow-up after discharge, readmission rates, behavioral health emergency department admissions, treatment volume, and total cost per episode.

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Blue Distinction program for substance use treatment and recovery uses quality and value criteria focused on timely, coordinated, multidisciplinary, and evidence-based care, as well as quality improvement and patient-centered care.

In other words, these designations give people and the professionals who support and care for them another way to understand a provider’s commitment to quality.  For someone seeking mental health or substance use disorder treatment, that recognition can be helpful in the decision-making process as they weigh many factors—services available, the level of care needed, location, and a provider’s approach to treatment—in determining the right care.

For Rosecrance, these recognitions provide an external perspective on the quality and value of our care. As payer programs and criteria evolve, Rosecrance works with health plan partners to keep information current and to understand how changing quality expectations apply to behavioral healthcare.

Rosecrance’s Payer Recognitions

Evernorth Behavioral Health: Center of Excellence (formerly Cigna Centers of Excellence)

Across designated locations serving communities throughout northern and central Illinois and the greater Chicagoland area, Rosecrance has earned recognition as an Evernorth Behavioral Health Center of Excellence for mental health and substance use treatment.

Cigna/Evernorth’s Behavioral Health Center of Excellence program provides health plan members and referring providers with information on the quality and cost-efficiency of participating behavioral health facilities. Evernorth evaluates facilities annually using defined quality and cost measures.

For inpatient and residential services in 2026, Evernorth evaluates measures including post-discharge follow-up, sustained engagement in care, readmission rates, behavioral health emergency department admissions, treatment volume, and total cost per episode.

Aetna: Institutes of Quality for Behavioral Health

Rosecrance is the only substance use treatment provider recognized by Aetna’s Institutes of Quality® behavioral health program for substance use treatment in Illinois.

For individuals and families with Aetna coverage, the Institute of Quality designation can help identify behavioral health providers that meet Aetna’s criteria for specialized, quality-focused care.

Aetna says its behavioral health Institutes of Quality network connects members with providers that meet quality and cost-efficiency standards. Aetna identifies criteria including specialized clinical services, excellence in clinical care, continuous improvement, and quality and cost-efficiency standards.

Aetna’s behavioral health program also identifies specific requirements for designated facilities, including daily access to medical care, involvement of family and significant others when appropriate, measurement of treatment progress and outcomes, and accreditation by a recognized organization.

Blue Cross Blue Shield: Blue Distinction® Specialty Care

Rosecrance is also recognized through Blue Distinction® Specialty Care for substance use treatment and recovery, with designated residential and outpatient services for adults and adolescents in communities including northern and central Illinois, Chicago, the Chicago suburbs, and northwest Iowa.

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Substance Use Treatment and Recovery program is designed to improve patient outcomes and value by identifying providers that deliver and facilitate treatment across the substance use disorder continuum. The program’s selection criteria emphasize quality, value, timely and coordinated care, multidisciplinary and evidence-based treatment, quality improvement, and patient-centered care.

Criteria include processes for transition and discharge planning, connections to community resources, sharing necessary care information, patient and family involvement in treatment decisions, and standardized patient experience surveys.

Blue Distinction recognition gives individuals, families, and referring professionals another indicator of a provider’s demonstrated commitment to quality and value in substance use treatment and recovery.

Carrum Health: Center of Excellence

Extending across its broader regional footprint, Rosecrance is recognized as a Carrum Health Center of Excellence provider across its locations in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Carrum Health uses a rigorous, data-driven process to identify behavioral health and substance use treatment providers that demonstrate strong clinical performance and value. Its evaluation considers factors including clinical outcomes, evidence-based treatment, appropriate treatment matching, management of co-occurring conditions, continuity of care, patient experience, and cost-efficiency.

For substance use treatment, Carrum Health evaluates outcomes such as readmissions, sustained sobriety, and continuity of support. Its model also incorporates value-based arrangements that hold participating providers accountable for outcomes rather than relying solely on the volume of services delivered.

How Rosecrance Measures and Improves Quality

Quality in behavioral health requires understanding whether care is helping, identifying where improvements are needed, and adapting services as individuals’ needs change.

At Rosecrance, the Performance Improvement team works with clinical staff to monitor measures such as readmission rates, length of stay, transitions to the next provider, and client satisfaction. This information helps the organization identify opportunities to improve individual treatment, clinical programs, and the overall care experience.

Rosecrance also uses measurement-based care to help guide treatment and program development. Clients’ progress is monitored through industry-validated surveys and other measures, giving clinicians and physicians information they can use to adjust care as individuals move through treatment.

In behavioral health, meaningful progress can take different forms. For one person, success may mean reduced symptoms or improved emotional stability. For another, it may mean stronger relationships, healthier coping strategies, sustained recovery, a successful transition to another level of care, or reconnecting with work, school, and community. Measuring these changes helps treatment teams look beyond whether services were delivered to better understand whether care is producing meaningful results.

This approach also supports Rosecrance’s broad care continuum for children, adolescents, adults, and families. Services include community-based and outpatient care, intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs, residential treatment, crisis services, and specialized programs for people with particular clinical or occupational needs. Multiple levels and types of care allow treatment to adjust as an individual’s needs change.

Multidisciplinary teams deliver care and may include physicians, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, nurses, therapists, counselors, and other behavioral health professionals. These specialists work together to develop individualized treatment plans and coordinate care throughout treatment.

What Should You Look for in a Quality Behavioral Health Provider?

Choosing behavioral health treatment is a personal decision, and no single measure can determine which provider is right for every individual.

When evaluating treatment options, individuals and families may want to consider:

• Does the provider offer evidence-based treatment?
• Does it offer the appropriate level of care?
• Can treatment be adjusted as needs change?
• Does the organization use measurement-based care?
• How does it coordinate care and support transitions?
• Does it offer specialized services for different populations and needs?
• Does it involve families and support systems when appropriate?
• Does it have qualified medical and clinical professionals?
• Does it have established quality-improvement processes?
• Has the provider been evaluated or recognized by health plan and healthcare organizations?

Many of these considerations are reflected in the quality programs developed by the health plans that recognize Rosecrance.

By combining clinical expertise, measurement-based care, and ongoing performance improvement, Rosecrance works to make treatment more responsive to each person’s needs while continually strengthening its programs and services.

A Foundation of Accountability

Payer recognition is part of a larger accountability framework that surrounds Rosecrance’s work.

Rosecrance is accredited by The Joint Commission and maintains licenses to provide behavioral health services in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The organization has also been a member of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) for more than three decades, aligning with the association’s standards.

Each represents a different form of external accountability. Licensure establishes the requirements Rosecrance must meet to operate and provide care. Accreditation provides an independent review of organizational and clinical practices. NAATP membership connects Rosecrance to professional standards specific to addiction treatment. Payer recognition adds the perspective of organizations that evaluate care on behalf of their members.

Together, these relationships place Rosecrance within a broader network of organizations with a stake in the quality, safety, effectiveness, and value of behavioral healthcare.