Children's Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI)
NOTICE TO PARENTS OR CAREGIVERS
Are you concerned about the way your child may be acting or feeling? Are you worried about your child’s moods or behaviors?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” please read this notice carefully. New MassHealth services may be able to help you.
These new services treat behavioral-health issues. Behavioral-health issues include mental health or substance abuse problems. These services will be available to children and youths under the age of 21 who are enrolled in MassHealth Standard and CommonHealth. In these new services, parents and caregivers will play a strong and active role in deciding about treatment for their child.
These services will include:
Intensive Care Coordination (ICC) — startsJune 30, 2009
ICC is a care-coordination service for children and youths with serious emotional disturbance (SED). A Care Coordinator works with the family to create a care planning team for their child. The team is made up of people who want to help the youth and family. Team members can be family, friends, and people who work with the youth, such as a teacher or school counselor, a therapist, or a caseworker from a state agency. Together, the team comes up with an Individual Care Plan to address the youth’s needs and support the family’s and youth’s goals. They do this by looking at what is working well for the youth and family, as well as what the problems are. The Individual Care Plan guides the youth’s care and helps organize any services the youth receives, even those from other agencies.
Family Support and Training (Family Partners) — starts June 30, 2009
Family Partners help parents and caregivers to help their children achieve their treatment goals. Family Partners are parents or caregivers of children with special needs themselves – they’ve “been there,” understand what families go through, and can share their experiences.
ICC and Family Support and Training are provided by Community Service Agencies (CSAs). There are 29 local CSAs and three specialty CSAs. To learn more about CSAs, call your health plan’s customer service department.
Mobile Crisis Intervention — starts June 30, 2009
Mobile Crisis Intervention is called when a child is having a behavioral-health crisis. Teams are available 24-hours a day, seven-days a week and go where the child or youth is located. They can help the child and family for up to 72 hours and can also help the family get other services.
In-Home Behavioral Services — starts October 1, 2009
In-Home Behavioral Services help children and youths with specific problem behaviors that get in the way of everyday life. It uses special behavior plans for children who haven’t been helped by typical therapy. Services are provided by therapists skilled in understanding and treating problem behaviors.
Therapeutic Mentoring Services — starts October 1, 2009
A therapeutic mentor works one-on-one with a child or youth who, because of their behavioral-health needs, require support and coaching to learn social skills, including better ways to communicate and get along with others.
In-Home Therapy Services — startsNovember 1, 2009
In-Home Therapy Services provide intensive therapy for a child and family to treat the child’s behavioral-health needs and help the family support the child in the home.
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To Learn More, Your Options Are:
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If your child is NOT receiving a behavioral-health service:
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§Contact your child’s primary-care doctor or nurse and explain your worries. Tell them that you received this notice and are concerned about your child’s behavioral health and would like to learn more about services that may be available to help.
§If you’d like help finding a provider for your child, call your MassHealth plan’s customer service line (see list below).
§Call a community mental-health center or any health provider that treats behavioral-health issues and ask if they are in your MassHealth plan’s provider network.
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If your child is receiving a behavioral-health service:
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§Contact your child’s behavioral-health provider and explain your worries. Tell them that you received this notice and would like to learn about services that may be available to help.
§If you’d like help finding a provider for your child, call your MassHealth plan’s customer service line (see list below).
§Call a community mental-health center or any health provider that treats behavioral-health issues and ask if they see MassHealth members.
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When your child sees a behavioral-health provider:
Your provider will conduct a behavioral-health assessment of your child, including the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool. The CANS is a report that will help your provider work with you to choose the best services for your child.
If your child has a behavioral-health disability:
If your child is not enrolled in MassHealth Standard or CommonHealth, but a CANS assessment or other medical evaluation shows that your child has a serious emotional disturbance (SED), he or she may be disabled and eligible for CommonHealth. Ask your provider for help sending a disability determination form to MassHealth to see if your child is eligible for CommonHealth.
If your child is not enrolled in a MassHealth managed-care plan and has insurance in addition to MassHealth:
By July 1, 2009, MassHealth may automatically enroll most MassHealth Standard and CommonHealth members under age 21 who are not enrolled in managed care into MassHealth’s behavioral-health managed-care plan, called the MassHealth Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP). After July 1st, behavioral-health services covered by MassHealth and not covered by the additional insurance you hold will be provided through MBHP. Other non-behavioral MassHealth benefits will continue on a fee-for-service basis. If your child is affected by this change, you will receive a letter from MassHealth telling you that your child has been enrolled in MBHP, along with a booklet explaining how to get benefits.
If your child is not enrolled in a MassHealth managed-care plan, please call:
MassHealth Customer Service: 1-800-841-2900 (TTY: 1-800-497-4648 for people with partial or total hearing loss)
If your child is enrolled in a MassHealth managed-care plan, please call:
Boston Medical Center (BMC) HealthNet Plan: 1-888-566-0010 (English and other languages) or 1-888-566-0012 (Spanish) (TTY: 1-800-421-1220 for people with partial or total hearing loss)
Fallon Community Health Plan: 1-800-868-5200 (TTY: 1-877-608-7677 for people with partial or total hearing loss)
Neighborhood Health Plan: 1-800-462-5449 (TTY: 1-800-655-1761 for people with partial or total hearing loss)
Network Health: 1-888-257-1985 (TTY: 1-888-391-5535 for people with partial or total hearing loss)
Primary Care Clinician (PCC) Plan: 1-800-841-2900 (TTY: 1-800-497-4648 for people with partial or total hearing loss)
Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership: 1-800-495-0086 (TTY: 617-790-4130 for people with partial or total hearing loss)