BUILD BETTER HEALTH

CO CREATING A MORE Just AND SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM FOR ALL

Founded in August 2024, the Mental Health Insurance Reform Task Force (MHIRTF) emerged in response to the mounting challenges mental health providers and clients face within the insurance system. As clinicians and practice owners, we saw how low reimbursement rates, clawbacks, and administrative barriers were limiting care for both clients and the professionals striving to serve them.

Clients are denied care.

Therapists are buried in red tape.

Together, we’re demanding change

OUR COMMITMENT

We know the system is complex, and that change takes time.

But together, we can help shape a future where healthcare is more accessible, more equitable, and more sustainable for everyone involved.

We began organizing with a shared goal: to better understand these systemic issues and take empowered, collaborative action toward a more mutually respectful model of care that honors clients, providers, and the sustainability of care systems as a whole.

Our movement has grown to be a national one, and our efforts have expanded beyond behavioral health.  We believe with collective care and mutual respect guiding us, we can build a healthcare system that puts people over profit and restores power to the whole rather than a select few.

OUR STORY

Our Mission

Build Better Health, is a non-profit organization here to help revolutionize healthcare by holding insurance companies and other large corporations who are key players in healthcare delivery accountable for their actions. We seek to help build mutually respectful systems where all involved, rather than only a select few, are able to benefit and thrive. Our work is rooted in:

  • Expanding access to affordable care

  • Securing fair, sustainable compensation for providers

  • Advancing transparency and accountability of insurance companies

  • Creating new community-governed systems altogether from the ground up

Through listening, data collection, documentation, relationship-building, legislative advocacy and thinking outside of the box, we’re working to transform insight into action, and to ensure providers and the communities they serve have a voice in shaping the systems they operate within.

The Mental Health Insurance Reform Task Force is dedicated to improving access and sustainability of behavioral healthcare in Kentucky and beyond.

What We’ve Done So Far

Since launching, we have:

  • Surveyed providers across multiple states, confirming that low insurance reimbursement is the leading reason clinicians opt out of network, limiting access to care.

  • Created a formal provider petition to the Kentucky Department of Insurance, calling for transparency, parity enforcement, and fair pay Sign Here!

  • Held monthly Task Force meetings with providers from across 22+ states, serving as a collaborative hub for advocacy, connection, and training.

  • Met with legislators and state DOIs to elevate provider perspectives and explore legislative solutions.

  • Testified on behalf of bi-partisan behavioral health legislation that would help improve access to care

  • Partnered with aligned advocacy groups, locally and nationally, to strengthen shared impact.

  • Assisted with the drafting of state legislation to address systemic gaps in rate transparency, parity, and oversight.

  • Advocated for better federal oversight by visiting several lawmakers in person in Washington, D.C. and delivering our federal priorities for better healthcare

  • Launched buildbetterhealth.org to gather real-life stories from clients and providers navigating insurance-related challenges and provide a resource hub for advocates and policy makers

  • Developed a state-by-state strategy guide, mapping policy models and enforcement mechanisms to inform next steps.

  • Hosted in-person Provider Roundtables, throughout Kentucky featuring CEUs, dinner, and online for other states

  • Helped launch multiple state branches of MHIRTF

  • Developed Subcommittees focused on Legislation, Litigation, Education and Innovation

  • Building a healthcare cooperative called People’s Solidarity Fund

Ready to help? Do you have a personal story about challenges you’ve faced with insurance, or perhaps an idea for how to improve the system for everyone? We’d love to hear from you.

Share it with us.

*** Should you choose to include it, all personal identifying information will be redacted before being shared with the task force. These stories may be  shared with policymakers and enforcers.  ***