MassHealth Information on Screening Tools Mandate Now Available on Website
Information on MassHealth's Children's Behavioral Health Initiative is now available at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) website at www.mass.gov/masshealth under "News and Updates".
On December 31, 2007 MassHealth required primary care physicians to use standardized behavioral and devleopmental screening tools to screen children under 21 years of age.
Click below for a grid describing the eight MassHealth approved behavioral health screening tools. The grid includes links to the screening tools' websites:
As a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist, I've worked with children who have mental illnesses and behavioral disorders and their parents for 30 years. My staff and I have created successful treatment programs for children from 18 months of age through late-adolescence to help them develop age-appropriate behavioral and social skills using the EPSDT (Medicaid) funding stream.
Our staff have consistently earned the highest praise from parents, advocates, and even Managed Care Organization officials for the quality and integrity of our work. I would like to help other licensed mental health professionals to learn how to do what we've been doing successfully in Pennsylvania for the past 16 years. A Power Point presentation that describes our approach is available for download and review at www.ibc-pa.org.
On November 21st, the Institute for Behavior Change will host a conference for parents and professionals at the Eden Resort in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to explain the Medicaid funding system for Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services (BHRS, often mistakenly called "wraparound" services in Pennsylvania) and describe how Medicaid funding for necessary treatment services for children can be easily and consistently obtained, how to identify the components and characteristics of excellent behavioral treatment services, and how to retain Medical Assistance (MA) funding for needed behavioral treatment services until the treatment plan is finished. The keynote address will be by Robert Cormany, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of Pupil Services Administrators (PAPSA).
This information was presented to an enthusiastic audience at the bi-annual Training Institutes in Nashville in July, along with outcome research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on more than 300 individual treatment plans for children with Autism spectrum disorders, ADHD and other conditions that found our treatment model to be associated with substantial behavioral change in children and worthy of further study. I hope that you will be interested in helping to get the word out about what we’ve done to integrate “high-fidelity Wraparound” (I’ve been an advisor to the National Wraparound Initiative since 2006), with a viable treatment model that brings skilled professionals into children’s homes and schools, and that has been funded without fail for the past 16 years at no cost to parents in Pennsylvania (regardless of their income).
CONTACT:
Steven Kossor
Licensed Psychologist Certified School Psychologist
Executive Director, The Institute for Behavior Change
www.ibc-pa.org
610-383-1432
Posted by: Steven Kossor | August 01, 2008 at 03:47 PM