Focus on Behavioral Healthcare

Member shares JCAHO Audit details

THINKHEALTH     It pays to be a member.

Call us to find out how it can pay for you.  (405) 286-1674

"One of the benefits of ThinkHealth membership is sharing business experiences," OrionNet President Clyde Wafford tells anyone who will listen.  As an example, he pointed to how a ThinkHealth member shared the details of  their center's positive experience on March 16 with an audit by JCAHO ("jayco" or the Joint Commission).

Here are some highlights of that audit.  Many  more details were shared with ThinkHealth members.

· First of all, the person doing the JCAHO audit commented about how much she liked the ThinkHealth software and her belief that it would be a great practice management tool for any center to have.

· The person doing the review was impressed with the software's access controls  and felt it provides a good form of electronic signatures and should comply with any regulations.

· The auditor had some suggestions about other data elements that would be good to put on a Progress Note, elements that ThinkHealth already collects.

· The auditor also felt that the fields on the Progress Notes should be laid out a little differently and offered suggestions.

· The auditor looked at the full system.  She looked at how Clinicians are set up, how credentials are handled, access rights, assignments, patient module, Prior Authorization module, etc. She felt that the system should work in any state and would meet the entire federal standards nationwide.

· The auditor looked at the Treatment Flow categories that are built into ThinkHealth Prior Authorization module and suggested the audited center start using the categories.

· On the Prior Authorization module, the auditor talked to the center about giving more details about where a client stands on their current problems.  The auditor listed some good details to track.

· The auditor had some good advice for the center about how they should track medications and some suggestions of how ThinkHealth could help in that process.

This sort of information sharing is a key difference between ThinkHealth and other practice management software vendors, Mr. Wafford said.

THINKHEALTH would work

for any center, auditor says

OHCA asks for Legislative support

As a public service, we share this appeal to behavioral healthcare centers.

The following email was sent to centers from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to spur action on appropriations matters affecting behavioral healthcare in the state.

Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2007

Subject: A message from Debbie Spaeth

Dear friends and colleagues,

It is time to take action, please contact your legislators and the Governor's office!!  A few weeks ago the House's appropriations bill did not include any of OHCA's budget requests for BH!  The exclusions included the following:

· 15% OPBH provider rate increase

· Residential Treatment level Substance Abuse treatment for kids and adults

· Partial Hospitalization Program/Intensive Outpatient Program treatment for kids and adults

· Medicaid Coverage for all Licensed BH clinicians

· Psychologists' services added to the adult benefit package

I know that many or all of these issues relate to you directly and would benefit our State's consumers.  There is power in numbers and the more of you talking it up, the better chance we have that these get added into the appropriations bill!!

If you need further information feel free to contact me or my staff and we'll be glad to provide you with this.

deb

Debbie A. Spaeth, LMFT, LPC, LADC

Behavioral Health Services Manager

Oklahoma Health Care Authority

4545 N. Lincoln Blvd., Ste.  124

OKC, OK   73105

(405)522-7080, Fax (405)530-3242

[email-masked]

Focus on Behavioral Healthcare editor's note:

Go to the links below to find your legislator's email address and phone number:

www.oksenate.gov/Senators/directoryalpha.htm

www.okhouse.gov/Members/MemberListing.aspx