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Feature Story
For Mental Health Awareness Month, we want to highlight the importance of coordination between behavioral health care providers and medical care providers to ensure appropriate care for patients with mental health and substance use disorders.
Caring for your patients’ mental health is important to their overall health. We are here to help you understand and address their health care needs. We remind you to look for signs of mental illness when providing care and refer patients for behavioral health services, if needed. Resources to help support mental health awareness are available to you here:
EmblemHealth Behavioral Health | ConnectiCare Behavioral Health
Medical care professionals can help address and coordinate behavioral health care by:
- Screening for mental health conditions.
- Talking about the medicines your patients take to help avoid potentially harmful medication reactions.
- Encouraging and coordinating seven-day follow-up care after mental health related ED/IP admission.
- Helping to link members to behavioral health specialist, if needed.
We Are Here To Help
Share this information with our members who have questions or need help finding a behavioral health professional:
EmblemHealth members: Call Carelon (formerly Beacon Health Options) at 888-447-2526 (TTY: 711). A representative can help 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ConnectiCare members: Call Optum at 888-946-4658 (TTY: 711). A representative can help 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Neighborhood Care: EmblemHealth members can stop by any of our Neighborhood Care locations for community support. Visit emblemhealth.com/neighborhood.
National Women’s Health Week begins on Mother’s Day, May 14. It’s a great opportunity to encourage your patients to make their health a priority.
Women are typically the cornerstone of a family’s overall health. Those who are caregivers have a greater risk for poor physical and mental health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two out of every three caregivers in the United States are women. Ensuring that they have access to quality care can lead to improved health for the whole family.
The CDC offers tips on what you can do to support your female patients.
MD Perspectives
Hello, colleagues.
Although Edward Bulwer-Lytton famously said that the pen is mightier than the sword, we find that a one-on-one conversation with a colleague can be even more effective.
That’s why we created our Peer-to-Peer (P2P) process – to allow for these conversations to address adverse determinations. As physicians, both in the community and within our health plan, we can discuss and collaborate on the right path forward for your patients. See more.
Sandra
Sandra Rivera-Luciano MD, MHSA, FAAP
Sr. Medical Director/Utilization Management
Would you like our perspectives on other health topics? Please write to us at
emblemhealthmedicaldirectors@emblemhealth.com.
While we welcome your suggestions, we ask that you do not send protected health information (PHI) or patient-specific issues to this mailbox. This mailbox should not be used for complaints, grievances, appeals, or claims inquiries. The Claim Inquiry and Message Center features in the provider portals (EmblemHealth | ConnectiCare) should be used for those issues.
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