Depression in Primary Care Program

For many patients, their family doctor is the clinician with whom they feel the most comfortable, as well as their entry point into the health care system. This may include treatment for depression.

We recognize the crucial role primary care physicians play in the diagnosis and treatment of depression. With that in mind, we created the Aetna Depression in Primary Care Program.

This program offers:

• diagnostic aide and severity monitoring tool, and
• reimbursement for depression screening and monitoring.

Program details

• Watch a brief presentation  about the Depression in Primary Care Program.   
• View details about the program, reimbursement and billing.  (PDF, 1 MB) 

Contact us to learn more

For questions about the program or to learn more, call us at 1-888–812–3862 or e-mail us.

 Additional resources

Depression diagnostic aide/severity monitoring tool
The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) helps identify depressed patients and treat them successfully. Specifically developed for use in the primary care setting, this brief, nine-item depression assessment relies on data self-reported by the patient.

The nine items on the PHQ-9 come directly from the nine signs and symptoms of major depression specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV). The PHQ-9 has demonstrated usefulness and acceptable reliability, validity, sensitivity and specificity.

In addition to serving as the primary diagnostic tool, the PHQ-9 can be used to measure the severity of depression and monitor a patient’s response to treatment.

Using the PHQ-9                                                                                                           
The MacArthur Initiative on Depression & Primary Care website provides more details about using the PHQ-9:

 Sample PHQ-9  

• Guide for Making a Tentative Diagnosis 
• Guide for Severity Scoring 
• Provisional Diagnosis Table 
• Treatment Response Table 

       PHQ-9 - English  
       PHQ-9 - Spanish (located on page 5)

Resources for providers 

• Our Clinical Practice Guideline – Treating patients with major depressive disorder  (PDF, 147 KB) 
• Resources to help PCPs recognize and manage depression
• Guides, CME/CE, and other clinician resources
• Depression-related articles 

Resources for your patients
   Feel free to share these flyers and resources with your patients:

• What is depression?  (PDF, 2.0 MB) 
• Managing depression  (PDF, 3.5 MB) 
• Take control  (PDF, 219 KB) 
• Antidepressant medications  (PDF, 451 KB) 
• Answers to your questions about antidepressants  (PDF, 732 KB) 
• Recovering from depression  (PDF, 2.4 MB) 
• Depressed? Counseling can help   (PDF, 1.1 MB) 
• Behavioral heath information and resources
• A behavioral health self-assessment that can help with understanding emotional or mental health issues

   These websites may also be helpful:

• Depresssion and Bipolar Support Alliance
• National Alliance on Mental Health
• Mental Health America
• Healthy Minds. Healthy Lives