Topic: inpatient treatment

As any case manager knows, making a referral can be a challenge, since many fall by the wayside during transition to another provider, different therapist, etc.

What does a place like that have in common with a big-city program filled with homeless addicts who have multiple social problems and co-occurring disorders and perhaps haven’t held a job in decades?

Inpatient customers are at your facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During that time they may be interacting with counselors, group leaders, techs, medical staff and other clinical folks for several hours a day. But the hospitality staff are there all the time.

For the most part, if you are hoping that insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, or another third-party payor will help with–or pick up entirely–the costs of treatment, you’ll be running into ASAM criteria that control who gets what kind of treatment.

A patient who leaves ASA can’t be considered a treatment success, and a high ASA rate is sure to damage a program’s reputation. Analysis and preventive action can lower your rate of ASA discharges. Here are a few simple suggestions.

If your inpatient provider determines eligibility using ASAM patient placement criteria, don’t forget to describe the patient’s need in those terms. Makes your case a little stronger by making their job a little easier.

I like to say that most of the conflicts are a tempest in a teapot — the problem being that you are in the teapot along with the tempest.