2025 In Review: Trends & Insighs from Community Behavioral Health Centers

As 2025 winds down, we’ve been reflecting on what’s happening in community behavioral health centers (CBHCs & CCBHCs) across the country. Conversations at events, meetings with partner organizations, and national policy updates paint a consistent picture:

CBHCs are managing rising demand, evolving funding requirements, and persistent operational challenges. All while striving to provide whole-person, integrated care.

1. Rising Administrative and Compliance Burden

CBHC teams are seeing higher workload without additional staffing. New federal and state rules from work requirements and eligibility verification to updated reporting obligations are increasing the amount of time staff spend on documentation and manual coordination.

“More admin work, less money,” as one county leader put it, especially for small teams that may have only a handful of staff handling complex populations.

Implications for CBHCs:

• Manual workflows create bottlenecks for care delivery.
• Tracking compliance, outcomes, and program eligibility can take staff away from clinical work.
• Small counties and clinics are particularly at risk for gaps in service delivery.

2. Coordinating Care Across Programs Remains Fragmented

CBHCs are expected to provide integrated care across crisis, outpatient, substance use, peer, and social services. Yet most systems remain siloed, with referrals, care plans, and follow-ups often managed manually.

One COO from a large east coast CBHC recently shared: 

• Referrals are often handled via email, phone, or fax, with limited automation.
• Real-time tracking of member engagement is lacking. Claims data can take 30–365 days to confirm whether someone actually received care.
• Post-discharge follow-ups are manual and inconsistent, leading to avoidable readmissions and gaps in care.

These challenges underscore the need for systems that allow real-time visibility and coordinated workflows.

3. Policy and Funding Updates Shape CBHC Operations

Nationally, new initiatives are reshaping behavioral health delivery:

• CCBHC Expansion: The National Council reports that more states are receiving federal support to implement the CCBHC model, building infrastructure for integrated, whole-person care. These models emphasize crisis response, outpatient care, and services for underserved populations.
• Ensuring Excellence in Mental Health Act: This proposed federal legislation highlights a national commitment to modernized behavioral health systems, focusing on interoperability, workforce support, and outcomes measurement.

CBHCs must balance these opportunities with the practical realities of staffing, reporting, and compliance. Many centers are investing in data-driven, integrated workflows to meet both client and policy expectations.

4. Operational Insights From the Field

From speakers at national conferences to our direct engagement with CBHC leadership and staff, we see consistent trends:

• Referral tracking gaps slow care delivery and risk client disengagement.
• AI, automation, and configurable workflows are emerging as key levers to improve coordination, reduce burden, and provide measurable outcomes.
• Even organizations with advanced care coordination models still struggle with fragmented systems, delayed claims data, and manual follow-up.

5. Where CBHCs Are Innovating

Despite these challenges, 2025 has shown that CBHCs are finding creative solutions:

• Building cross-program care coordination, linking crisis, outpatient, and community support.
• Using real-time dashboards to track outcomes and engagement.
• Deploying configurable workflows for follow-up, documentation, and referrals.
• Leveraging technology to reduce administrative burden, freeing staff to focus on client care.

6. Looking Ahead to 2026

The trends from 2025 make one thing clear: CBHCs need integrated, flexible, and data-driven systems to meet growing demand, regulatory requirements, and the needs of people they serve.

Chorus supports these goals by providing:

• ‍Unified client records across programs, services, and providers.‍
• Closed-loop referral management to track engagement in real time.‍
• Automated follow-ups and alerts for high-risk clients.‍
• Actionable dashboards for population-level insights, funding alignment, and outcomes tracking.

By connecting teams, providers, and programs, CBHCs can deliver whole-person care efficiently, sustainably, and measurably, and be ready for the opportunities and challenges 2026 will bring.