The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) www.dhs.pa.gov just announced that HealthChoices was chosen to establish Pennsylvania’s “Telephonic Psychiatric Consultation Service Program” (TIPS).
TIPS is a new HealthChoices program designed to enable peer-to-peer child psychiatry consultation teams, Primary Care Providers (PCP), medical specialists, and other prescribers of psychotropic medications to cover children insured by Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance programs.
One vendor was selected by the physical health Managed Care Organizations (MCO) for each of the five HealthChoices zones. Teams will ensure access to quality services in the appropriate setting based on the child’s need and will help mitigate the lack of available child psychiatry resources.
Teams to provide help include:
- Children’s Community Pediatrics—Southwest and Northwest zones
- Penn State Children’s Hospital—Northeast and Lehigh/Capital zones
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia—Southeast zone
The TIPS teams are comprised of child psychiatrists, licensed therapists, care coordinators, and administrative support. The teams are available to assist any PCP who sees children or adolescents covered by HealthChoices and the Fee-for-Service program plus the teams also support behavioral health clinicians who may need additional support.
The consultations can possibly result in:
- An answer to specific PCP questions
- A referral to the team care coordinator to assist the family in accessing local behavioral health services such as for a specialty psychiatry or neuro-psychological assessment
- A referral to the team therapist to provide transitional face-to-face care or telephonic support to the child and family until they can access local behavioral health resources
- A referral to the team or local child psychiatrist for a face-to-face acute psychopharmacological or diagnostic consultation
Some youths may need specialty psychiatric care and have medication needs that are not appropriately managed in the primary care setting. TIPS teams will then help connect people to the appropriate case as TIPS psychiatrists do not prescribe medications. This model is now being used in more than 30 other states.
TIPS Care Coordinators work with the county mental health administration and the behavioral health MCO to identify and maintain up-to-date behavioral health resources in the community. They also work with families to identify appropriate options, with follow-up to ensure that connections are made.
www.dhs.pa.gov/provider/mentalhealth/telepsychcConsultServProgrTIPS/index.htm has more information on Pennsylvania’s Telephonic Psychiatric Consultation Service Program (TIPS.