Managed Health Services Blog

Managed Health Services (MHS) began conducting semi-formal, intermittent surveys of its members during the third quarter of 2009 in an effort to improve MHS’ Consumer Assessment of Healthplan Providers and Systems (CAHPS) member satisfaction survey ratings for 2010. Members responded to questions developed to assess their perceptions with regard to their happiness with MHS doctors, their likelihood to remain MHS members, interaction with the MHS call center, access to medical care, and outreach and counseling received on tobacco product cessation.

The results of the third quarter key provider-related questions reflected:

• •68% of MHS members are “very happy” with their MHS doctor
• •18% percent reported being “somewhat happy” with their doctor
• •36% reported using tobacco
• •43% of those who indicated current tobacco use reported being advised by their doctor to stop tobacco use or receiving information regarding cessation of tobacco use.

There are opportunities for doctors to improve patient perceptions of care received. In addition, there are opportunities to increase efforts to discuss tobacco cessation with members and offer counseling or medication options to assist members who want to quit. MHS recommends referring these members to the Indiana Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW. www.indianatobaccoquitline.net/

The survey also presented members with multiple choice questions and allowed for free-form comments. Overall, member comments were positive regarding relationships with their MHS doctors and the care they receive.

When asked what aspect of their relationship with their MHS doctor members most wanted improved, the most common response was shorter wait times in doctor’s offices during an appointment and shorter timeframes to see the doctor when scheduling appointments.

As a reminder, we ask MHS doctors to schedule appointments within the Indiana Medicaid programs’ guidelines, based on the patient’s medical condition, as listed below:

MHS thanks you for your efforts to provide quality care to MHS members. Together, we can continue to improve the health of Hoosiers. If you have any questions or comments regarding the above appointment standards, please contact your MHS Provider Relations Specialist, or call us at (877) 647-4848.

This entry is filed under Blog, Providers.

Esta carta es para informarle acerca de un cambio en los servicios de farmacia para el Programa de Hoosier Healthwise y el Programa de “Healthy Indiana Plan” (HIP).

Informarle acerca de un cambio en los servicios de farmacia para el programa de Hoosier Healthwise (PDF)

This entry is filed under Members, News, Providers.

Cenpatico/MHS is committed to ensuring effective communication to our members with special linguistic needs and cultural differences. We do not advocate the use of patients’ family or friends as an interpreter during appointments. To ensure effective communication, we facilitate and coordinate with trained professional language interpreters, including American Sign Language. Interpretation services can be made available face-to-face at your office if necessary, or via telephone, to assist with discussing technical, medical, or treatment information with members as needed. Interpretation services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in 200 languages to assist when there are no other translators available for the language. These services can be accessed through the Customer Service Department during regular business hours or through NurseWise after normal business hours. Face-to-face interpretation services should be established in advance of an appointment to ensure timely accommodations. Please contact us and have the member’s ID number, date and time service is requested and any other documentation that would assist in scheduling interpreter services. The Interpreter Request Form can also be accessed at www.cenpatico.com and submitted to us for processing.

Article from the Fall 2009 Provider Report, Cenpatico Quarterly Newsletter:
Provider Report Fall 2009
www.cenpatico.com

This entry is filed under Behavioral and Physical Healthcare Integration, Blog, Providers.

You may have noticed that Cenpatico/Managed Health Services (MHS) is ramping up its process to verify that you have an appointment available in 10 calendar days for routine care and within 24 hours for urgent care. When we call to check your availability, if you do not meet either one of the standards, we send a letter reminding you of the contractual obligation that needs to be met and that we will follow up in the next quarter. If we find continued lack of appointments within the timeframes requested, we ask for a Corrective Action Plan. Once submitted, we review and contact you if it is not acceptable. Once we reach an agreement, Cenpatico/MHS accepts it and will contact you after actions have been made to determine if you now meet the requirements. This process has prompted many providers to call us and we appreciate the opportunity to work with you. Cenpatico/MHS also expects you to tell Members, or to have a message on your phone that directs members, who have a non-life threatening emergency to the nearest emergency center.

Cenpatico/MHS has found that while those meeting appointment availability standards have improved, it is still not meeting our goal to have 90% of our provider offices be available within 24 hours for urgent appointments and 10 calendar days for routine appointments. To ensure that your office meets these directives, it is important to provide education on these standards to the front office staff. Another is to allow time each day at lunch or before/after normal office hours to see those patients in crisis. Your front office staff needs to know you can be available during these hours if needed. If you are a solo practitioner and do not have front office staffs to rely on for making appointments, you could change the message that patients receive while you’re in session to reflect that you will return their call within two hours or whatever you see as possible.

Our quality department and network management staff are available to brainstorm ideas to help you meet standards that will work for you and your practice. Thank you to those of you who have been called and met the standards. We appreciate your commitment to our members.

Article from the Fall 2009 Provider Report, Cenpatico Quarterly Newsletter:
Provider Report Fall 2009
www.cenpatico.com

This entry is filed under Behavioral and Physical Healthcare Integration, Blog, Providers.

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This entry is filed under Events, Members, News, Uncategorized.