CAFCA Children's Treatment Services Committee Minutes

 April 21, 2006

Present: Arnie Goldstein (Excelsior), Don Moseley Jedd Haffer (Children’s ARK), Karen Yarberry (Jefferson Hills), Dave Dillingham (El Pueblo), Skip Barber (Colorado Care Management), Susannah Carroll (CAFCA).

The meeting was called to order at 10:15 a.m. and introductions were made.

1. TRCCF Update

Skip wanted to get input from the RTCs about needing a financial gap coverage if service is disrupted for 30 days.  Do the RTCs need an interim cash flow plan?  Arnie asked if the new system has been tested/ready for changes?  It is anticipated the system will not work perfectly. Jefferson Hills is planning for two months with no revenue due to glitches in system. Having start-up funding in place when implementing a new system is not a new practice.  Do we need to talk to Mo Keller about having financial coverage in place to cover the gap?  Susannah to e-mail RTCs to get feedback on their financial readiness should something go wrong with the system. 

Bev Dahan did mention that the separated space needs to be designated for the bedrooms.  

Some confusion as to what the licensing people will look at when conducting facility visits.  Some say they will just look at personnel files. Others, say they will take a couple of days to look at the entire facility. 

The rates will be determined on census numbers. The new rate proposal is going to Re-Design meeting. Currently, there is no appeal process made for the rate setting.

It’s still unclear what portion of physician’s time is billable to Medicaid and what is agency billable time.

2. PRTF Update

We are still waiting on final decisions but understand that RTCs can designate some rooms such as time out rooms as PRTF rooms and must follow PRTF protocol for those areas. However, at this time CMS has no clear guidelines on it and will develop some in the next 6 months – 2 years.

3. Status of the Provisional License for Post-Degree Therapists

Provisional license scheduled for Appropriations on Monday morning.  Skip sent Memo to CMS needing a quick answer to provisional license.  Last Wednesday, CMS responded by saying the provisional license is not a problem.  HCPF requires that the person gets his/her provisional license from DORA, but there will be no separate Medicaid number required for this person.  This person can be billed under supervisor’s Medicaid Number.

4. CPT Codes for Fee-for-Service Medical Billing

 The presented codes are the ones to be used. However, they are still working on the medication management by psychiatrists piece.  Nurses cannot bill Medicaid.

5. LPC Shortage

This may not be an issue depending on how the licensing issue works out.  Some RTCs have had open positions for many months.

6. Joint Appeals of 24-hour Monitoring Teams and Licensing

This is an idea Arnie’s Board brought up to him to share with the group. If some facilities have in common certain things they cannot have and would like to appeal, why not appeal as a group? It was suggested that we could have a bulletin board at CTS to keep track monitoring issues and look for common themes.  Arnie will draft a MEMO for all of the membership.

Meeting adjourned at 11:50 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Susannah Carroll