By Kim Johnson, February 02 2011
NIATx -- focused as it is on removing barriers to treatment and recovery -- is offering a new resource for providers of behavioral healthcare, including adolescent substance abuse treatment providers.
Since last October, we've operated a learning collaborative on "Business Practices of the Future" for behavioral healthcare providers, and our initial focus has been on helping agencies adapt to fee-for-service so they'll be better able to serve more clients under national health reform legislation.
If you were unable to participate in our collaborative, you can particpate in our fee-for-service support forum. (You'll need to log in to post, but it's easy to create a NIATx identity if you don't aleady have one.) We want it to be a lively place where people can post questions and comments, share their stories, or discuss a specific problem they might be having in creating or improving their systems for billing third-party payers.
Existing forum post topics include, among others:
- Looking into electronic medical records
- Billing for services rendered by an employee through the credentials of a direct clinical supervisor
- How can you get staff to actively participate in collections?
- How many people think they need an electronic medical record solution in order to start billing?
- Effective internal communication
We'd really like to have people knowledgeable about behavioral healthcare coverage and billing for children and adolescents participate. Drop by and join in!
Kim Johnson is the deputy director for operations of NIATx, a research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that focuses on systems improvement in behavioral health. She is also director of the ACTION (Adopting Changes to Improve Outcomes Now) Campaign, a national campaign to improve access to and retention in treatment. She has a master's degree in counselor education and an MBA.
Photo: asvensson.
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Updated: February 02 2011