The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services has awarded a contract to PointClickCare to provide a Behavioral Health Treatment and Referral Platform (BH TRP) to facilitate admission to the next appropriate steps of care for patients in the Commonwealth who are awaiting disposition in emergency departments related to behavioral health.
The platform will be used by acute and psychiatric hospitals, health insurance carriers, and state agencies, including the Department of Mental Health and MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program.
Ontario-based PointClickCare’s solutions already support the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts health information exchange, the Mass HIway.
PointClickCare’s BH TRP will support automation of behavioral health referral screening, evaluation, and referral processes, enable the electronic transmission of standardized admissions information, and create a real-time, transparent view of patients seeking behavioral health treatment, the company said. This platform is intended to help hospitals reduce time spent in the ED and reduce lengths of stay for patients needing behavioral healthcare, particularly inpatient care. In addition, providers will receive critical information needed to streamline communication, stakeholders will have the ability to establish baseline information and identify trends and patterns regarding ED utilization for monitoring and policy purposes, and patients with behavioral health needs will receive timelier admissions for appropriate services.
Recent data from the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association found that there are between 500 and 700 patients boarding in acute-care hospitals as they await inpatient behavioral health admission. Brian Drozdowicz, senior vice president and general manager of acute and payer markets at PointClickCare, noted that the company’s network in Massachusetts, including 94 percent of the acute network and 69 percent of the skilled nursing network, puts it in a position to enable hospitals, health plans, and state agencies to identify patients in EDs awaiting care in places such as inpatient psychiatric treatment and improve those patients’ outcomes.
“We are pleased to have found a technology partner who can streamline communication, address potential administrative burdens on our providers, and who is familiar with EOHHS’s Expedited Psychiatric Inpatient Admission Protocol,” said Emily Bailey, chief of the Office of Behavioral Health at MassHealth, in a statement. “We selected PointClickCare because we are confident the team shares our vision for an automated, centralized platform to empower our stakeholders with all the information necessary to facilitate care for patients in need of acute behavioral health services.”
More than 27,000 long‐term and post‐acute care providers, over 3,100 hospitals and health systems, 2,200 ambulatory clinics, every major U.S. health plan across the U.S, and over 70 state and government agencies use PointClickCare to enable care collaboration and value‐based care delivery.
