AUSTIN, Texas—(May 7, 2013)—Cenpatico announced today that it is honored to accept the 2013 Case in Point Platinum Award for Pediatric Case Management.  Cenpatico staff Ailene Correia, Clinical Supervisor, and Scott Bendle, Service Manager, were on hand to accept the Award given in recognition of Cenpatico’s Complex Case Management in Foster Care program.  Sam Donaldson, Cenpatico President and CEO, said “We are very honored that our unique approach and dedicated staff have been recognized with this prestigious national award for the quality of their efforts.  Cenpatico is committed to serving children and youth in foster care.”

The Case in Point Platinum Awards recognize case management excellence across the health care spectrum. Cenpatico’s winning program was one of five programs from across the country that were finalists in the Pediatric Case Management category.

“We are thrilled to receive the prestigious Dorland Award.  Our foster care team goes above and beyond every day, serving as the behavioral health voice and health home for children in foster care. It is our honor to work on behalf of this vulnerable population, improving outcomes and impacting the future of these children and youth. This award comes during National Foster Care Month, a time when we recognize there are more than 400,000 children in the foster care system nationally. Cenpatico’s vision is to improve the overall health, well-being and permanency for children and youth in the child welfare system in America through creative, innovative approaches,” said Tracy Eilers, Senior Director of Foster Care Operations with Cenpatico.

The Complex Case Management in Foster Care program is part of Cenpatico’s trauma-focused model of care for children and youth in Foster Care. It is a component of the overall care management program that strives to increase placement stability and improved outcomes for this vulnerable population. The Complex Case Management program is designed to meet the needs of children and youth in foster care who have frequently been hospitalized for behavioral conditions or issues. Cenpatico saw a decrease in overall number and duration of psychiatric hospital admissions for those enrolled in the Complex Case Management Program. The program provides support to all the caregivers in these children’s lives through Cenpatico’s Focus24™ strategy. Focus24™ is the concept that providing clinical services alone is not sufficient to help a child heal from the effects of trauma and best outcomes for children are achieved when the entire system of care is supported and improved.

“All of us at Cenpatico extend our deepest sympathy to the families affected.” said Sam Donaldson, Cenpatico’s CEO. “As behavioral health experts, we understand the emotional trauma that can result from such devastating events and we would like to offer our assistance in meeting the emergency needs of these families in their time of grief.”

• Intervening With Traumatized Children Who Are Often Misdiagnosed

Mountain Health and Wellness (MHW) recently received a $32,000 grant from Cenpatico, the Regional Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA) for Pinal County. The grant will go toward creating the Earthheart Park and Community Garden situated on 4 acres just north of the new MHW facility located on the southeast corner of Plaza Drive and Superstition Boulevard.

There will be an award ceremony on Monday, Jan. 9, at 3 p.m. at MHW located at 625 N. Plaza Drive. Terry Stevens, CEO of Cenpatico will be making the award to Rob Evans, CEO of MHW who will be joined by Mayor John Insalaco, and project committee members Vice Mayor Rick Dietz and Councilwoman Robin Barker.

Mountain Health and Wellness is an integrated healthcare organization and the Earthheart Park and Community Garden will feature an ADA-compliant walking path, along with several work exercise stations, 30 raised gardens, an outdoor community kitchen, and a performance area for spoken word, musical and dramatic presentations.

Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona (Cenpatico) holds the contract to manage the behavioral health care services for Santa Cruz, Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Yuma, La Paz, Gila and Pinal Counties. The contract covers people who are AHCCCS eligible with Title XIX and Title XXI benefits, as well as having a serious mental illness (SMI).

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How to Report Suicidal Users on Facebook

Federal subsidies to encourage the use of health information technology—currently available to medical providers—should be extended to providers treating people with mental health or substance abuse disorders, panelists urged at a May 4 forum on behavioral health.

Better integration of behavioral health and physical health is essential for improving overall health outcomes, the panelists said, and one way to help promote this integration is through the use of health IT, two panelists noted. They spoke at a forum on “Behavioral Health: Can Primary Care Help Meet the Growing Need?” sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health education group.

Mental health and substance abuse providers currently are ineligible to receive health IT financial subsidies made available in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, noted Joseph Parks, chief clinical officer for the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Behavioral Issues May Be Ignored

Without easy access to a patient’s medical history through health IT, physicians treating patients for physical problems are frequently unaware of any mental health or substance abuse issues these patients may have, Parks pointed out.

To help share treatment information among providers, Parks said his agency makes available to the state’s Medicaid providers all claims data for the Medicaid enrollee they are treating.

“If you think about it, your insurance company knows much more about your medical care than any individual doctor,” Parks said. “Most payers don’t make that information available to the treaters, which is a dumb business decision.”

Agreeing with Parks, Sam Donaldson, president and CEO of Cenpatico, a behavioral health care organization, noted that a bill currently pending in the Senate, the proposed Behavioral Health Information Technology Act (S. 539), would extend the availability of financial subsidies for electronic health records to behavioral and mental health professionals. The bill is sponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

S. 539 also would extend health IT subsidies to psychiatric hospitals, community mental health centers, residential and outpatient mental health treatment facilities, and substance abuse treatment facilities.

“Only 8 percent of these providers have fully implemented electronic records,” Donaldson noted.

The Senate bill, which has bipartisan support, is pending in the Senate Finance Committee, which has not acted on the bill since it was introduced in March 2011.

Parity in Rehabilitation Coverage Lacking

In addition to extending health IT incentives, Parks said another policy area that merits federal attention is requiring health plans to provide more coverage for behavioral health rehabilitation. “If you have a stroke or a heart attack, most benefit plans will give you about three to six months of rehabilitation services,” he noted.

“But you don’t get that after you are discharged from a mental hospital or after hospitalization for a suicide attempt,” Parks said. “Parity means that you get rehabilitation support and community services following a hospitalization for psychosis or a suicide attempt,” he said, adding, “That’s a parity issue that needs to be attended to.”

John O’Brien, senior policy adviser for the Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said the key areas his office is focusing on are:

• integrating primary care and behavioral health;
• developing strategies to achieve parity in the treatment of mental health and substance abuse problems and other medical problems among health plans;
• expanding opportunities for home and community-based services; and
• directing care to children and youth with behavioral health needs.

To help promote recruitment of more mental health professionals, Donaldson said he advocates a federal program “akin to the Peace Corps,” which he described as “a policy at the national level that would pay for schooling and loans” for mental health professionals. In return, they would provide a certain number of years of service to low-income people in need.

Large Segment of Population at Risk

Deanna Okrent, a senior policy adviser with the Alliance for Health Reform, provided an overview of the U.S. population with behavioral health issues, noting that:

• nearly half of all Americans will develop a mental illness;
• 27 percent of Americans will have a substance abuse disorder;
• in 2009, mental health conditions were the fourth most common reason for hospital admissions among children; and
• in 2007, nearly one-third of adults and one-fifth of children had a behavioral health problem.

Also, among people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, who are often disabled or elderly low-income enrollees with chronic health conditions, Okrent said mental health issues affect 50 percent of disabled enrollees and 20 percent of the elderly enrollees.

On one end, social media helps people that have been impacted by mental health to know that they aren’t alone. For example, people with specific issues can join a forum discussion or online chat to help one another cope. There are also celebrities, such as Joe Pantoliano of The Sopranos and The Matrix, and mental health organizations, like NAMI, that are using social media accounts to reduce stigma and raise awareness of mental health issues.

Information can be also made available in many ways. Do you want your Health Provider to send you an email or text message reminding you of your next appointment? Many providers already do. Do you need information on a particular illness? Several credible websites exist to answer your questions and provide you with a wealth of information. Interactive group experiences, such as lectures where you can ask questions, and providers who will personally answer your emails already exist in some places. Even health insurance companies offer a lot of useful information on their websites, including tips on how to lead a healthy lifestyle and feel better both mentally and physically.

There is a lot of good that can come from mental health and social media. However, nothing can take the place of a one-to-one talk with your provider.

There can also be downside to social media. A lot of misinformation is posted on the internet, and some of it is even malicious –some personal opinions that may not be accurate can be presented as fact.

Utilizing social media can also be a very isolating experience and sometimes leads to cyber-bullying. When we use applications like Facebook, Tumblr and YouTube, we have less actual contact with our friends and family. There is no warm touch of a human hand or direct eye-to-eye contact. Social media can also be misused to harm people. People sometimes feel empowered using this type of communication and believe that they are protected from being discovered and will remain anonymous. For example, a number of suicides have been directly linked to cyber bullying. Often, the cyber-bully feels free to torment his or her victims with less fear of retaliation. Most of these people are eventually caught but not before committing serious harm to others.

We are going to continue to see more use of social media in mental health issues in both a good and bad light. Not everyone learns the same way or needs the same information, and different people will find different ways of using social media. Still, the use of social media also places upon us the burden of greater alertness to the potential abuses.

Bernard Engelberg, M.D.
Medical Director

AHCCCS members who will have mandatory copayments for taxi services beginning April 1, 2012 are:

• Childless Adults (in the table, the Childless Adult population is designated as member Copay Level of 40):
  • who reside in Maricopa and Pima Counties, and
  • who are aged 19 and older, and
  • who are enrolled in an AHCCCS Health Plan

["Childless Adults" are also referred to as “AHCCCS Care” or the “TWG (Title XIX Waiver Group) Population.”]

Providers impacted by this mandatory copayment include those who provide transportation via a “taxi,” which is defined as a vehicle that has been issued a taxi special license plate pursuant toA.R.S. § 28-2515.

Mandatory copayments permit providers to deny services to members who do not pay the $2.00 copayment. The $2.00 copayment will be charged each time a taxi is called.  If a taxi waits for a member, e.g., while the member picks up a prescription, then a $2.00 co-pay cannot be charged for the continuation of the one-way trip. Specific members are exempt from copayments, for example, persons determined to be Seriously Mentally Ill (SMI) by the Arizona Department of Health Services (in the table, exempt members are designated as a Member Copay Level of 00).  Please be aware that payments to providers will be reduced by the amount of a member’s copayment obligationregardless of whether or not the provider successfully collects the mandatory copayment.

AHCCCS’ Managed Care Organizations primarily contract with one transportation brokerage for transportation services.  In this case, the brokerage will notify their taxi drivers when an AHCCCS member approved for taxi services is a Childless Adult who is subject to the $2.00 per one-way copayment.  Contractors who do not have an exclusive arrangement with a transportation brokerage will directly provide the notification of a copayment requirement to the transportation provider when scheduling the transportation for the member.

More information regarding this taxi copayment, as well as copayments for other AHCCCS services, can be found at http://www.azahcccs.gov/commercial/providerbilling/copayments.aspx.

Complete Memo: NEMT Copay letter -Providers

AHCCCS members who will have mandatory copayments for taxi services beginning April 1, 2012 are:

• Childless Adults (in the table, the Childless Adult population is designated as member Copay Level of 40):
  • who reside in Maricopa and Pima Counties, and
  • who are aged 19 and older, and
  • who are enrolled in an AHCCCS Health Plan

["Childless Adults" are also referred to as "AHCCCS Care" or the "TWG (Title XIX Waiver Group) Population."]

Providers impacted by this mandatory copayment include those who provide transportation via a “taxi,” which is defined as a vehicle that has been issued a taxi special license plate pursuant to A.R.S. § 28-2515.

Mandatory copayments permit providers to deny services to members who do not pay the $2.00 copayment. The $2.00 copayment will be charged each time a taxi is called.  If a taxi waits for a member, e.g., while the member picks up a prescription, then a $2.00 co-pay cannot be charged for the continuation of the one-way trip. Specific members are exempt from copayments, for example, persons determined to be Seriously Mentally Ill (SMI) by the Arizona Department of Health Services (in the table, exempt members are designated as a Member Copay Level of 00).  Please be aware that payments to providers will be reduced by the amount of a member’s copayment obligation regardless of whether or not the provider successfully collects the mandatory copayment.

AHCCCS’ Managed Care Organizations primarily contract with one transportation brokerage for transportation services.  In this case, the brokerage will notify their taxi drivers when an AHCCCS member approved for taxi services is a Childless Adult who is subject to the $2.00 per one-way copayment.  Contractors who do not have an exclusive arrangement with a transportation brokerage will directly provide the notification of a copayment requirement to the transportation provider when scheduling the transportation for the member.

More information regarding this taxi copayment, as well as copayments for other AHCCCS services, can be found at http://www.azahcccs.gov/commercial/providerbilling/copayments.aspx.

Complete Memo: NEMT Copay letter -Providers