How to Reduce No-Show Appointments with Telehealth

Telehealth has revolutionized the patient experience by making it easier to attend appointments, communicate with their provider, and reduce no-show rates. On top of enabling continuity of care for patients, telehealth also increases clinician satisfaction and provides financial benefits for organizations. In this blog, we review why no-shows happen and how the impact of telehealth can help improve patient outcomes and organizations.

Social determinants of health and no-show rates

Inability to take time off work, challenges getting childcare, fear of stigma, limited access to transportation, and complicated commutes are all barriers that can keep patients from regularly attending their behavioral health appointments. In fact, according to the American Hospital Association’s report, Transportation and the Role of Hospitals, 3.6 million people in the U.S. don’t receive care due to transportation barriers.

Fortunately, telehealth creates a digital front door that meets patients where they are, regardless of the social determinants of health they face. For example, if a patient can’t take off from work for two hours to drive to their appointment, they can find a confidential area to take their appointment and still receive treatment.

Dr. Thomas Milam, Chief Medical Officer of Iris Telehealth, shared his thoughts on how telehealth can be used to bridge communication between providers and their patients, noting:

“Telehealth is not just video connections with people. It’s patient portals, online self-scheduling, digital front doors that enable people to cancel, schedule, or postpone appointments. Video and audio-only connections can help people connect to a mental health professional from home and receive new services and follow-up appointments.

Having those avenues for patients to access their providers in different ways has shown to be a big and important aspect of telehealth.”

It’s evident telehealth has a lot of benefits for patients, but let’s take a look at some of the ways this care delivery model can promote provider satisfaction and help organizations improve the financial sustainability of their behavioral health programs.

How to improve provider satisfaction and no-show rates

Addressing no-show rates not only benefits your patients, but it can also provide financial benefits for your organization. For example, an article from Forbes references a study that found patient no-shows cost the U.S. health system $150 billion a year and physicians an average of $200 for unused time slots.

Implementing telehealth opens up another option for patients to get care and can help providers see patients whether they take their appointments in-person or online.

Additionally, provider satisfaction may decline if your no-show rate increases, and your organization may experience higher turnover rates. For example, if a provider consistently has patients missing appointments, and they’re not getting to provide consistent care, they could struggle with job satisfaction. In turn, recruiting a new provider can cost an organization two to three times the annual salary of the provider they’re replacing.

The good news is that using telehealth as a strategy to encourage patients to attend their appointments can help increase provider satisfaction and help them keep doing what they do best. It also helps create the possibility of different appointment types. With different forms of communication like telehealth, patients can reach out to their clinic and let them know they won’t be able to make their appointment. This communication can open up an appointment for another patient waiting for care.

According to Dr. Milam: “Financially, it’s good to have avenues for patients to get access who are on wait lists. There are a lot of things that can be done through digital health without human involvement. For example, if someone cancels an appointment online, it can send a link to someone else notifying them that an appointment is available. There are a lot of things that don’t involve human power that can connect people and increase access.”

Along with opening the digital door to another patient for care, the impact of telehealth can also add flexibility to the patient experience. For example, if patients can’t come in for their entire appointment, they can take an audio-video call for 30 minutes from their car if needed.

Patients who feel more engaged and connected to their provider are more likely to show and communicate if they can’t make their appointment. For providers, if there’s communication and the provider knows they won’t have a visit during a certain slot, they can regroup, work on notes, or reply to emails.

The connection between patient engagement and virtual care models

Providing care via telehealth opens up more options for access. For example, with telehealth, your organization can expand your provider pool beyond your local community and connect your patients with specialty providers who can most effectively help your population.

Additionally, for health systems, your organization can connect your patients with care models like Bridge Care Services. This model helps keep your patients engaged with their health outcomes and walks with them through each step of their journey.

Bridge Care Services provides a clinician-guided evidence-based navigation assessment that directs patients to the most appropriate next level of care, addresses short-term gaps in care across the continuum, and facilitates closed-loop handoff to the optimal long-term provider.

Addressing short-term gaps in care can have an impact on patient symptoms, even in a short amount of time. In fact, at Iris, one of our partners achieved a 38% improvement in depression symptoms over eight weeks of care. Additionally, they were able to get 40% of their psychiatry referrals diverted to a lower, more cost-effective level of care. You can read the full case study here.

By opening up access to specialty providers and effective care models via telehealth, your patients will be more engaged with their care journeys, and your organization will see better no-show rates.

Improve your no-show rates with Iris Telehealth

If you’d like to learn more about how telehealth can improve your patient experience and decrease no-show rates at your organization, contact us today.

How Health Systems Can Improve Behavioral Health Care at Scale

Finding behavioral health providers can be challenging for hospitals and health systems across the country. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 47% of people live in a mental health provider shortage area. Alongside this shortage of mental health providers, health systems are facing an ever-increasing demand for care, making finding a sustainable, scalable solution for behavioral health services paramount.

In a webinar hosted by Beckers Hospital Review, healthcare leaders from Allina Health and Geisinger came together to discuss their approach to scaling behavioral health across the care continuum and how they’re leveraging partnerships with organizations like ours to meet the demand for care and support their patient populations.

How Geisinger is leveraging behavioral health partnerships to meet patient needs

Dawn Zieger, Vice President of Behavioral Health and Psychiatry at Geisinger, spoke to the organization’s experience with a rise in outpatient demand, noting they receive 180 referrals daily. Zieger says they would need to hire one psychiatrist every other day to keep up with demand. Fortunately, leveraging behavioral health partners who can support health systems via telehealth can help keep up with growing demand and scale behavioral health services across the care continuum.

Here are a few ways behavioral health partnerships can support care delivery:

  • Specialist care: To help keep up with the surge of outpatient access, organizations like Geisinger have leveraged telehealth services to help supplement their on-site providers and make behavioral health care available locally. For example, for health systems with a high volume of young patients, connecting with a pediatric psychiatrist can be a game-changer for the whole organization.
  • Group therapy: Scaling patient care by using group therapy can be another great strategy to reach more patients and get them the care they need faster. At Geisinger, 70% of their referrals are for depression, anxiety, or stress. By leveraging group therapy, Geisinger can reach more people where they are and help make the most of provider time.
  • Patient management: At Geisinger, Zeiger says they’re making a paradigm shift towards a population management approach to care. For example, organizations are better positioned to close care gaps and improve patient outcomes by monitoring patients showing early signs of behavioral health conditions and providing proactive outreach.

Sharing her thoughts on telehealth’s role at Geisinger, Zeiger said, “Virtual care has really helped democratize care in our community and helped us to serve in a way we never could.”

How Allina Health is optimizing outpatient care in the ED

Helping ensure psychiatry is readily available in the ED is crucial to helping increase throughput and improving patient outcomes.

To learn more about increasing throughput in the ED, download our whitepaper.

Joe Clubb, Vice President of Operations at Allina Health, highlighted Allina’s approach to building out their outpatient services in a robust way that will allow them to close out 2023 with 15% growth and help them ensure alternatives are available to inpatient admissions.

Clubb shared that leveraging virtual care to support those efforts has served their patients well – with Allina’s patient attendance rates going up by 10% and patient satisfaction increasing by 5% after virtual care implementation. He says, “For Allina, virtual care is here to stay.”

By having behavioral health providers readily available, patients can get the care they need. While the mental health provider shortage continues to grow, leveraging virtual clinicians can significantly impact operations.

Clubb says, “Because of the rapid growth, we can’t hire our way out of the shortage. We continue to do a great job with recruitment but rely heavily on our Iris partnership to staff that growth in our partial treatment programs.”

Leveraging behavioral health providers for integrated care

Having a care team available to patients and providers can help prevent behavioral health conditions from escalating and give on-site teams a specialist to lean on for complex cases.

For example, Geisinger integrated a provider team comprising psychiatrists, PMHNPs, and LCSWs to ensure each patient got the right level of care, by the right provider, in a timely manner.

To learn how Geisinger dramatically reduced their referral queue, read the case study here.

At Allina, they’re addressing the needs of individuals through an integrated primary care model. Currently, they have a team of 25 psychiatrists and 80 psychologists. They’re also introducing a new role called a mental health consultant, a clinical social worker embedded in primary care.

Clubb says by using this model they can address needs inclusive of social determinants of health and complex psychiatric needs.

By learning how to integrate mental health into primary care, organizations are more fully equipped to address a broad spectrum of behavioral health needs.

Get started with Iris Telehealth

At Iris, we’re grateful for the partnership of Geisinger and Allina Health and couldn’t be more thrilled to help them scale their behavioral health programs. If you’d like to hear more of their insights into their behavioral health, you can watch the webinar here.

Additionally, if you’d like to learn more about integrating quality behavioral health programs into your hospital or health system, contact us today to get started!

How Telepsychiatry Can Support an Effective Integrated Care Model

Integrated mental health services acknowledge that mental health and physical health don’t exist in silos and make high-quality care a reality for patients across the country. What initially began as co-location, a model that puts behavioral health and primary care providers in the same building, but not on the same team, has evolved into a collaborative approach that improves patient outcomes.

This convergence of medical and behavioral health facilitates true collaboration between providers, offers patients the best possible care, and mitigates downstream medical costs. Telepsychiatry helps elevate collaboration even further by making specialty expertise readily available for organizations and their providers.

Read on to learn more about this innovative approach and all the benefits it offers organizations and patients across the country.

The importance of integrated care

The overlap between medical and behavioral conditions is part of what makes integrated care so essential. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), chronic illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes can make someone more susceptible to developing a mental health condition. Likewise, depression can increase the risk of many physical health problems such as heart disease and stroke.

Other co-occurring conditions include:

  • Diabetes: People with diabetes are two to three times more likely to experience depression, and only 25%-50% of people with diabetes and depression get diagnosed and treated
  • COPD: Around 40% of people with COPD are affected by severe depressive symptoms or clinical depression
  • Inflammation: Higher rates of inflammation can put those with a history of heart attacks at increased risk of depression

The mind and body connection plays a significant role in our everyday lives and makes provider collaboration crucial to a holistic approach to patient care.

The benefits of integrated behavioral health care

According to the American Psychiatric Association, the collaborative care model can effectively control costs, improve access and clinical outcomes. Additionally, it can also increase patient satisfaction in various primary care settings, including rural and urban communities. There are also impactful benefits for patients and providers.

For patients

Convenience is king. When all providers are under one roof, it supercharges the patient experience and eliminates the chance of duplicate procedures, labs, and diagnostics. With integrated care, patients don’t have to worry about requesting records or keeping them on hand because their providers already have them.

For providers

The integrated care model also saves providers time and money. The collaborative model takes the approach of integrating mental health into primary care at the same facility, and their records access is optimized. Shared insights into medical records reduce the risk of medication interactions, allowing providers to see patient prescriptions at the primary care or behavioral health level.

Additionally, the American Psychological Association cites improved patient outcomes, cost savings, and reduced mental health stigma as additional benefits of the integrated care model.

Getting your integrated behavioral health care program started

As with implementing any new process, there may be initial start-up challenges. For example, unless teams are already using the same medical record system, training may need to be implemented to ensure everyone knows how to use the system properly.

It can be easy for teams to revert to a co-location model. Change is challenging and can create hesitation around learning a new medical record system or moving beyond simply referring someone down the hall for a primary care check-up.

The integrated care model takes things a step further, circles back and asks, “How did that go?” “What kind of follow-up do I need to do on that referral?” This model facilitates a more comprehensive level of care that provides more convenience, is cost-effective, and offers a higher level of healthcare for patients and providers.

The value of this model can’t be overstated, and despite initial challenges, it’s essential for teams to keep moving forward. With an integrated care model, everyone benefits in the long run.

Achieving cross-functional buy-in for integrated mental health services

The integrated care model makes tedious processes like tracking down records and labs seamless. It also helps assure providers that their patients are getting holistic treatment for any co-occurring conditions. For example, suppose a patient with diabetes is prescribed an antipsychotic. It’s helpful for the provider to know that their patient is getting high-quality treatment for their diabetes. For these reasons and more, providers typically feel enthusiastic about the new model. However, it’s essential to share those benefits with the rest of the staff and patients.

Walking the team through the process and any new steps is crucial to a successful transition. Ensuring your staff is well-informed of changes, why you’re doing them, and the potential snares can help everyone feel more comfortable.

It’s also important to get buy-in from nurses and staff. Placing these team members on the committee leading the charge towards integrated behavioral health care can make a big difference in the organization’s adaptability.

How organizations are embracing integrated mental health services

Integrated health is the future of funding. It’s one of the direct outcomes of the Medicaid 1115 waivers, it’s a primary outcome for certified community behavioral health centers (CCBHC), and it’s going to be something that insurance payers, Medicare, and Medicaid will require. The fact of the matter is, integrated care isn’t going to be optional at a certain point.

Healthcare organizations want the best for their patients, and offering the full spectrum of care helps them achieve this goal.

Where telepsychiatry fits in

Telepsychiatry elevates the integrated care model and makes specialty care more accessible. This virtual approach to psychiatry is crucial as the country experiences a growing provider shortage. As a 2017 report by the National Council for Behavioral Health revealed, the U.S. may be short by 6,090 to 15,600 psychiatrists by 2025. This shortage makes having a behavioral health provider available even more essential for on-site medical teams.

Having easy access to specialists is especially important in rural areas where finding providers can be particularly challenging. Telepsychiatry simplifies this process by integrating into multiple locations with one set of staff. For instance, you might have one primary care provider in an eight-county rural area. Instead of finding eight providers to go into each clinic, having one who can be plugged into several different centers is highly beneficial.

The future of integrated care

As of 2017, the American Hospital Association (AHA) reports health systems across the U.S. are utilizing some form of integration in the following areas:

  • 51% emergency services
  • 38% primary care services
  • 46% acute inpatient services
  • 17% extended care

This integrated model is quickly becoming the benchmark for high-quality care. As more health systems move away from siloed treatment and towards holistic, person-centered care, the more significant the benefits.

How Iris Telehealth can help

Iris Telehealth envisions a better world through healthy minds, and we’re continually expanding our psychiatry services to those who need it most. If your organization is interested in implementing a telepsychiatry program that can seamlessly integrate into your healthcare organization, Iris can help. Contact us today.

How Iris Telehealth Compares to Locum Tenens

Medical groups and telehealth locum tenens groups are often compared but have distinct differences in their approach to patient care, the provider selection process, and care team integration. At Iris Telehealth, we’re a medical group facilitating telepsychiatry services to communities across the country. Our behavioral health providers work with patients and organizations to provide high-quality, value-based care.

So, what’s the difference between a medical group approach and telehealth locum tenens approach? Keep reading to learn more about telehealth locum tenens, how their approach differs from a medical group solution, and how telepsychiatry can bring the best value to healthcare organizations across the U.S.

What does it mean to be a telehealth locum tenens group?

Telehealth locum tenens are typically used for part-time or short-term provider fills. Regionally, locum tenens have niche groups that provide temporary work when organizations need an extra hand. For example, if a provider goes on maternity or disability leave, a locum’s group could provide a temporary fill for their position. Providers could be contracted anywhere from six to 12 months (if your organization needs a provider to serve a long-term position for your community, a locum tenens group is probably not for you).

Telehealth locum tenens may also be used when a healthcare organization doesn’t have adequate behavioral health support and need additional physician staffing. Hospitals or health systems may work with a telehealth locums group to help supplement gaps like those left by the ongoing provider shortage. At the height of the pandemic, 85% of healthcare facilities utilized locum tenens.

While locums telepsychiatry services typically provide short-term solutions, medical groups like Iris have the staying power to make a meaningful impact on the healthcare organizations they serve.

Three distinct differences between telehealth locum tenens and telepsych partners

Even though locums telepsychiatry services may be a convenient solution, achieving long-term stability can be challenging for their partners. Long-term stability takes shape in several ways – including cost, collaboration, and continuity of care. Although a challenge for locums, long-term stability is where a solution like a dedicated telepsychiatry partner shines. Let’s take a closer look at how these two approaches compare.

Cost: Locums come with a higher hourly rate for a short-term fill. Higher costs can prove difficult for organizations for obvious reasons like expense, but the extra lift of licensing and credentialing each new provider can also become tedious. With locums telepsychiatry services, your team also has to run point on any background checks, paperwork, and reference checks that must take place.

At Iris, we manage all recruiting, supporting, and supervising costs. Additionally, we handle all the licensing and credentialing to help make the implementation process as smooth as possible. By tailoring market rates, finding the best solution for your organization’s challenges, and strategizing to find the most cost-effective solution, we create an implementation process that works for everyone.

Collaboration: Integration is an essential part of our approach to care. Iris providers become a seamless part of your care team, building trust and rapport with your patients and your organization. Securing this trust between providers in the same health networks creates comfort and reliability.

For locums, without a long-term provider solution, it’s difficult for an organization’s providers to feel like the locum tenens physicians are part of the team, and can make it challenging to build concrete workflows.

Continuity of care: The beauty of securing a long-term provider fit is the relationship that can build between patients and providers. When patients can see the same provider consistently, the patient experience is better. But, when organizations have high provider turnover rates, patients have to continually re-tell their stories – which can negatively impact engagement. This turnover can create distrust, increase no-show rates, and even cause a patient to convert to a clinic that provides a long-term solution.

With these components at play, working with a provider who can deliver on cost, integration, and continuity of care can be essential to your organization’s success.

The value of job matching

At Iris, job matching is an essential piece of the puzzle. When matching a provider with an organization, we take several things into consideration to ensure the match is right.

The Iris Match includes:

  • Provider experience
  • The mentality of the organization’s executive team
  • Prescribing philosophies
  • Personality match
  • And much more

In contrast, most locum tenens groups look at age, range, specialty, where they’re licensed, and run the standard checks – but the process stops there.

Locums telepsychiatry solutions can gloss over the critical details that help create stability and long-term job satisfaction. At Iris, we value clinician happiness and want our providers to feel good at their jobs. That’s why we take an extra step to get to know our providers, understand what they want, and learn how we can match them with an organization that meets their needs.

Additionally, our licensing and credentialing team allows us the flexibility to look outside of the state for providers who might have more pertinent experience for the position an organization is trying to fill.

Positive outcomes from a medical group approach

Partnership is a central component of a medical group’s approach to care. For Iris, it’s an essential part of who we are and what we value. From the beginning, our partners meet with key stakeholders at Iris who get to know what they’re looking for, their needs, their model, and what it takes to make a successful provider match. We’re also clinically driven and have clinical leaders that help educate our recruiters.

Based on this approach, we’ve been able to secure successful matches and drive positive outcomes for our partners, like Swope Health and Spectrum Healthcare. Together, we helped them achieve the following outcomes for their population:

  • Secure the right provider match for their community
  • Guarantee functioning telepsychiatry systems
  • Seamless provider integration
  • Increase their show rates
  • And reduce their waiting list

We care about our partners and the mental health of their patients. That’s why we take time to make thoughtful matches, like we did at Swope and Spectrum, to help expand care and drive better outcomes.

Where Iris fits in

At Iris, we work with you to create a long-term placement that facilitates high-quality care for your patients and care team. We provide support along the way to help with implementation and customized workflows and assist your care team with licensing and credentialing.

If you would like to talk more about how we can help your organization secure a long-term provider fit, contact us today.

How Telehealth Has Impacted Mental Health Care

Every day, we see first-hand how telehealth improves access, bridges care gaps, and enhances patient experiences and outcomes.

For many Americans, telehealth has changed how patients receive care and how health systems, community clinics, and providers facilitate care.

Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of telehealth for mental health.

Table of Contents

Improving access to mental health care
How telehealth bridges care gaps
Enhancing patient experiences with telehealth
The future of telehealth
Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Improving access to mental health care

One of the most considerable challenges in behavioral health is access. For rural populations, individuals living far from mental health services may have issues finding high-quality and culturally competent care. In a survey conducted in 2022, researchers found that 88% of the rural population reported being open to telehealth. And those who required a doctor more often were even more likely to be interested in telehealth.

These figures are significant, considering that 1 in 5 rural Americans require mental health care.

Leveraging telehealth in rural communities allows Americans to receive the care they need. It also bypasses access, transportation, wait times, and stigma challenges. Since virtual services can occur on-site at a clinic or from a patient’s home, they are an effective way to provide care when barriers exist within a community.

How telehealth bridges gaps in care

Telehealth addresses care gaps for specialized populations, including older patients, children, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those from diverse cultural backgrounds. Recent data shows that Black patients’ telehealth visit completion rates skyrocketed to 70% from 52% in a Philadelphia health system during the pandemic. According to this study, the challenges of physically traveling to a clinic and taking time off work are significant barriers to mental health care. Virtual behavioral health services can minimize any social determinants of health that communities face.

For example, with a virtual care option, children do not need to miss school, older patients who have trouble traveling can stay home, and patients from marginalized communities can work with a provider who can better relate to and address their unique mental health needs.

Additionally, leveraging telehealth can help organizations combat the worsening psychiatrist shortages, which contributes to a significant gap in mental health care.

Enhancing patient experiences with telehealth

Patients like the results and flexibility telehealth for mental health provides and want to keep using it. While some patients may need to come in person for care, having virtual behavioral health options can deliver massive benefits.

Here are just a few ways telehealth improves the patient experience:

  1. Better health outcomes: Telehealth can foster better communication between providers and patients, improving health outcomes overall. 93% of patients report that they would use telemedicine to manage prescriptions, and 91% of patients say they patients would use telemedicine to adhere to appointments. Patients can also proactively manage their health with the usage of telehealth by using it for prescription management and appointment adherence.
  2. Increased continuity of care: Access is everything in mental health care, and telehealth helps improve access and supports continuity of care. In a 2023 study conducted by CVS and The Harris Poll, 85% of people between the ages of 33 and 40 believe that digital health services have made mental health care more accessible. When patients can see the same provider consistently, the patient experience is better. Telehealth makes getting care easier for patients.
  3. Access to specialty care: When patients need a specialist, such as a child psychiatrist, it can be challenging to navigate the system and find a provider. Telehealth facilitates more straightforward access to mental health specialists for patients and enables collaborative care between providers and specialists, ensuring the best patient care possible. In fact, a 2022 AMA study reported that 75% of clinicians reported that telehealth enabled them to provide quality care.

The future of telehealth

Telehealth has become the new normal, and we think it’s here to stay. With many healthcare organizations leveraging virtual behavioral health to provide high-quality care, their communities and providers can experience the benefits of telehealth for mental health.

In December of 2022, President Biden signed the Omnibus Bill, providing $10 billion for behavioral health and expanding telehealth flexibilities for Medicare beneficiaries. This bill supports expanding workforce development programs and buprenorphine deregulation in the behavioral health industry.

For patients, telehealth has significantly contributed to reducing stigma. The next phase of healthcare involves finding non-stigmatizing and meaningful ways to support individuals with mental health conditions. Telehealth has presented opportunities in this regard and has offered individuals a way to diminish barriers, especially ones related to stigma.

We’re confident telehealth will continue to increase its impact on the behavioral health landscape in the years to come.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Telehealth has significantly impacted the behavioral health landscape and will continue to have an impact in the future. If you’re looking to implement telehealth into your organization, contact us today to see how our telepsychiatry services can help.

How to Transition from Private Practice to a Telehealth Group

Making the move from private practice to working for a telehealth group comes with a lot of benefits and considerations. In this blog, we’ll outline the pros and cons of making this switch and offer recommendations for making this transition seamless.

Are you looking for something specific? Use this table of contents to jump where you need to go:

Table of contents
Why you might consider a transition to telehealth
The benefits of working for a telehealth group
How to make your transition to telehealth seamless
What life at Iris looks like

Why you might consider a transition to telehealth

Owning and operating your own practice comes with many benefits and challenges. On the one hand, you can choose your clientele and the type of care you want to provide and create a schedule that aligns with the type of practice you wish to have. On the other hand, being in charge of everything can be demanding.

For instance, running your practice requires you to book and bill your clients, manage your paneling, licensing, and credentialing, and pay for an electronic health record. It may also feel like you always have to be available to patients. When working in a hospital, community mental health center, or federally qualified health center, patients have a line to call for emergencies – but in private practice, you are that line.

While there are several challenges to private practice, let’s take a close look at some of the benefits telehealth offers.

The benefits of working for a telehealth group

While private practice requires a significant amount of time and attention, working for a supportive telehealth group can take a huge weight off your shoulders.

Here are a few of the biggest benefits of working for a telehealth group:

Less overhead: Telehealth groups like Iris Telehealth pay providers based on hours scheduled, not volume seen. In a private practice setting, you might schedule seven clients in a day, but if only three show up, you’re only paid for that three. Additionally, in certain organizations like Iris, we provide all the necessary equipment and you don’t have to worry about billing.

Multiple layers of support: With a telehealth group on your side, you have someone to walk your entire journey. At Iris, you are supported by a full cycle recruiting team who walk alongside you from your first phone call through your placement at a hand-selected partner group.

Help with licensing and credentialing: If you’ve worked in mental health before, you understand how laborious it is to keep up with licensing, credentialing, and paneling. That’s why working with a telehealth group that takes care of these processes for you is invaluable. For example, once you are matched with an Iris partner group you are provided the support of a medical staff services team who takes care of these logistics and helps maintain these things for you.

Unique perks of telehealth: With telehealth, you’re not at risk of running into patients when you’re out and about in your community. In many cases, you will be a couple of states away from where your clients live. Additionally, telehealth also takes away the stressful commute, the need to do your own marketing, and provides a comfortable work from home environment. With telehealth, you can expand your experience and maintain your work-life balance in a way you may not have been able to in a private practice setting.

How to make your switch from private practice seamless

If you think telehealth might be the best fit for you and your needs, here are a few ways you can begin your transition from private practice.

  1. Create a transition plan: Consider how you will transition your clients and where they can go for treatment after your time together ends. It’s essential to be mindful of your time and ensure you’re not overworking yourself with additional private practice work once you transition to telehealth.
  2. Think through lifestyle changes: Transitioning from working for yourself to working for someone else can take some getting used to, so it’s important to consider what that change will be like. There might also be new assessments, documentation, and specific therapeutic engagement and approaches that you might have to become familiar with as you transition to telehealth.
  3. Consider your working space: Working for a telehealth group means you’ll be working from your home. With that change comes a few different considerations. First, you should ensure your space is HIPPA compliant and has good lighting, acoustics, and a strong internet connection. It’s also important to check that your internet has adequate upload and download speeds.
  4. Determine how you’ll manage work-life balance: Another consideration for working remotely is how you’ll manage work-life balance when your office becomes a part of your home. It’s important to think through how you’ll separate the two and the structures you can put in place to help transition from work to life with more ease.

What life at Iris looks like

At Iris Telehealth, we believe our providers should be applauded for the incredible work they do each day. By partnering with us, you can feel good about working with a group that since 2019, has been accredited by the Joint Commission for behavioral health.

We can’t wait to see how we can work together to create a better world through healthy minds. Contact us today to learn more about open roles at Iris!

Becoming a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic

As more states become eligible for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) certification and funding, healthcare organizations are considering becoming CCBHCs. The opportunities for CCBHCs continue to expand, and it’s in your organization’s best interest to consider obtaining CCBHC certification. The certification process can be labor-intensive but it offers many benefits to organization and patients.

In this piece, we’ll discuss the requirements, challenges, and how to become a certified community behavioral health clinic.

What is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC)?

The CCBHC program began in 2014 to identify healthcare organizations with exceptional, comprehensive care and provide them with additional funding to increase access to services. It’s grown since then, and Congress has appropriated annual funds for CCBHC expansion grants since 2018. These grants allow CCBHCs to expand access to care. However, existing funds are not intended for long-term sustainability, and states are working to expand the state CCBHC model within state Medicaid programs to account for long-term growth. Bipartisan federal legislation was introduced in 2020 to extend CCBHC programs to new states and expand the reach of currently existing CCBHCs.

The fact that both state and federal governments are prioritizing CCBHCs is a testament to their success and essential work in the community. And, CCBHCs distinguish themselves from more traditional care models in a number of ways, including:

  • Their emphasis on increasing access to care
  • Their “open-door policy” requires them to serve anyone needing care. They partner with local primary care facilities and hospitals. They integrate with physical health care to serve patients’ mental and physical health needs
  • Their tailored care for active-duty military and veterans and commitment to involving peers and family in care processes
  • To learn more about CCBHCs and what they provide, check out this resource from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

CCBHCs serve everyone without limitations on geographic location or ability to pay because of the additional funding they receive.

How do logistics differ from other mental health providers?

You’ll notice shorter wait times for CCBHC mental health services than you would working with other mental health providers. CCBHCs aim for a five-day wait time for new intakes, and most also have walk-in clinics. Some CCBHCs even provide same-day access.

CCBHCs are also required to provide 24/7/365 access to crisis care, including mobile crisis teams and crisis hotlines.

On top of shorter wait times, a few other CCBHC requirements include:

  • Evidence-based practices: As a CCBHC, you must maintain an additional level of quality by using evidence-based practices for every process.
  • MAT: You’ll need a care coordinator who offers medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for substance use disorders.
  • Payment: You’ll have to establish a sustainable payment program that allows the practice to exist even without grants or additional government funding.

Who is eligible for CCBHC certification?

All nonprofit health centers are eligible to become CCBHCs. Many organizations fall into the nonprofit category, including:

  • Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs)
  • Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)
  • State mental health clinics
  • Tribal health organizations
  • Other nonprofit health centers

While for-profit clinics cannot individually be certified as CCBHCs, they can be certified collaborating partners of a CCBHC system.

The pros and cons of CCBHC certification

Of course, there are pros and cons to CCBHC certification. Benefits of certification include the fact that your organization is held to a higher standard. These stands mean you provider better care for patients and eligibility for more funding even beyond the CCBHC grants. Cons include the lengthy and involved process and the fact that you’ll need a dedicated implementation team to become certified.

If you decide the pros outweigh the cons, your next step will be a three-part process to prepare your organization for certification.

You’ll first set expectations for your team, then review your policies and procedures while simultaneously evaluating your MAT protocol. We’ll review each of these steps below.

  1. Set expectations: As you’re considering the process, set expectations within your organization. It can take up to a year to get off the ground as a CCBHC and will be an involved process. Large organizations may be able to move through the process more easily, as they may already be providing many of the services required for CCBHC certification. Smaller organizations may take a couple of years to increase staffing to a point that will make them viable CCBHC candidates.
  2. Review policies and procedures: CCBHCs must accept all patients and use evidence-based practices. You’ll need to review all of your policies and procedures to ensure every action you currently take is deliberate and documented. If your clinic uses the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality, your policies will not hold up under scrutiny by accreditors. Reviewing policies is a major task, as it means policies ranging from how you prescribe medications to cleaning processes for the laundry room must be documented. Today, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) make it easier to track the number of patients served, services they receive, follow-up times for crisis calls, and more. While many health centers are already capturing this data for internal purposes, it’s important to ensure data is captured consistently and reported to external auditors.
  3. MAT protocol: Clinics who aren’t already offering medication-assisted treatment (MAT) may find the MAT requirement a barrier as they consider certification. Consider what your center currently offers, and remember your clinic does not have to be a full free-standing methadone or suboxone clinic but does need to provide evidence-based MAT.

Fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel! Many other clinics have gone through the process, and templates for policies and procedures reduce some of the work. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and use the resources available. There are databases across the country for clinics to share resources.

What other challenges could I encounter?

The process for gaining CCBHC certification is constantly in motion. Staff turnover is one of the biggest challenges you could face during implementation. If your staff turns over during the quality management phase, you may lose progress and crucial internal knowledge.

To account for this potential challenge, make sure you have a reliable point person, usually the clinic’s director of quality management, to lead the project and be the final point of contact. Once certified, your quality management team will also have to prepare for audits and answer auditors’ questions on demand.

Be proactive, not reactive

We hope this discussion has given you some insight into the world of CCBHCs. Just as hospitals were striving for Joint Commission accreditation years ago, we believe nonprofit health centers will soon need to move toward CCBHC certification to ensure they’re providing the best quality care. Leaders in the field can influence the future of community mental health care by being CCBHC certified early instead of being forced to become certified in the future.

More resources

Also, remember that sister centers within your state and other healthcare provider have gone through the process can be valuable resources.

As always, Iris Telehealth is here to guide you. Contact us for more information about CCBHC certification and benefits.

How to Increase Mental Health Care in Native American Communities

Approximately 1.3% of the United States population identifies as Native American or Alaskan Native. In 2020, it was reported that over 19% of this population experienced a mental health condition.

Although many individuals in these populations require treatment, the majority of Native Americans reside in rural areas where access to mental health services is severely limited. Thankfully, telehealth can help bridge the gap and connect this community to culturally competent behavioral health services that meet them where they are.

Want to know how your organization can help increase access to care for this population? Take a closer look below:

Table of Contents
Barriers to mental health care for the Native American community
Best practices for mental health organizations
The benefits of telehealth for the Native American community
How Iris Telehealth can help

Barriers to behavioral health care for the Native American community

Access to healthcare can come with various challenges, including a lack of culturally competent care, a shortage of specialty providers, and cultural and systemic barriers that can influence behavioral health outcomes.

Let’s examine some of the most significant obstacles this community faces when seeking care.

  • Lack of culturally competent care: One of the most considerable barriers for the Native American population is the lack of culturally competent care available where they live. Many behavioral health providers may not understand the unique cultural experiences of Native American individuals and families, which may lead to inadequate treatment or misunderstandings. However, working with a telehealth group that facilitates provider matching services can help organizations find a clinician who is passionate about serving this community and trained in providing culturally competent care.
  • Historical trauma: Native Americans have a history of trauma due to colonialism, forced relocation, and genocide. The trauma inflicted on Native American populations can impact their mental health today, leading to substance use, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and even suicidal ideation. For providers, it’s important to acknowledge where they are in their own learning and awareness of indigenous culture and experience. Working with providers who maintain curiosity and openness about a person’s cultural history can help reinforce identity and resilience among patients.
  • Speciality care: For the Native American population facing disproportionately high rates of substance use disorder, increased suicide, and depression getting the right specialty care is essential. Without specialty care, patients may rely on primary care physicians or general practitioners for mental health care. While these providers do their best to address mental health needs, a provider with specialized training and experience is best suited for patients with complex needs. With increased access to specialty care, Native American patients can receive accurate assessments, comprehensive treatment, and complex medication regimens if needed.
  • Mental health deserts: For Native Americans living in healthcare deserts, getting to an in-person appointment may not be possible. According to a study by GoodRx Health, more than 113,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives live in 492 counties that lack mental health providers. The research also found that over 90% of these areas are rural and have limited healthcare resources. These mental health deserts can exacerbate access issues and put care further out of reach.

How organizations can address mental health in the Native American community

While Native American populations may face considerable challenges in receiving mental health care, organizations can play a fundamental role in addressing these barriers.

Here are four strategies that healthcare organizations can use to improve access and outcomes for Native American populations:

  1. Leverage social media: Social media can be a powerful tool mental health organizations can use to connect with the Native American community. Social media has the power to reach a wider audience, provide resources, and bring awareness to mental health issues. For example, organizations can leverage social media to promote local events like community health fairs, food drives, or other happenings that create a safe space for Native Americans to help address their needs.
  2. Establish partnerships in the community: Mental health organizations can establish partnerships with other organizations in the Native American community to help improve access to mental health care. This strategy can include partnerships with tribal health clinics, community health centers, or other organizations that serve this population. By working together, mental health organizations and community partners can help build trust, increase awareness, and provide more comprehensive behavioral health care services.
  3. Work with culturally competent behavioral health providers: Understanding the history of healthcare within a community is vital. Is there a language for mental health? Are mental health diagnoses a sign of weakness in a specific culture or community? By identifying and understanding the difference in history and culture, your organizations can meet people where they are and provide more effective care to different communities.
  4. Implement telehealth: Healthcare organizations can offer alternative care delivery methods to the Native American population, like telehealth. Remote solutions can help overcome some of the barriers to access by providing Native American patients with greater access to behavioral health care services.

How telehealth can help address mental health in the Native American community

Here are a few ways telehealth can increase access and improve the quality of care for the Native American community:

  • Culturally competent providers: Telehealth enables the Native American community to connect with culturally competent mental health providers while also granting the organization access to a broader range of specialists who may not be geographically accessible otherwise. At Iris, our provider matching process allows organizations to find the best telemental health provider for the populations they serve. When facilitating provider matching services, we look for a provider who aligns with your organization’s prescribing philosophy and help ensure they are passionate about serving your community and knowledgeable about your population.
  • Flexibility: In addition to increasing access to mental health providers and having a provider who can meet the needs of your community, telehealth can offer flexibility in scheduling and transportation for Native American populations. For those who reside in remote areas of the country, a remote behavioral health care option can reduce transportation barriers.
  • Confidentiality: Many Native American communities are tight-knit, with many members of the family being interconnected. Therefore, Native American populations may also face stigma from family and community members when seeking mental health care treatment. Telehealth can offer a more comfortable and confidential setting for those seeking mental health services, especially when discussing mental health concerns with a provider outside their community.

How Iris Telehealth can help

Iris Telehealth can assist your health system by connecting your community with providers who understand your population and can provide the specialty care they need.

If you’d like to learn more about how Iris can help implement a telepsychiatry solution to provide more accessible care options for Native American individuals and families, contact us today.

How Bridge Care Services Help Hospitals Address Short-Term Mental Health Needs

Ensuring patients with a mental health diagnosis get the best short-term care possible after their hospital visit is essential. In fact, clinical best practices and various guidelines recommend that 100% of patients leaving the ED with a behavioral health diagnosis should receive follow-up within the first seven days. However, that process is done less than half the time nationally.

For health systems, solutions like Bridge Care Services can help deliver the quality, short-term care needed to support effective patient outcomes and experiences. But, how does bridge care work, and how does it help ensure patients get the care they need in a way that’s financially and organizationally sustainable for health systems? Keep reading to learn more.

Want to jump ahead? Feel free to navigate this piece using the table of contents below:

The challenges hospitals face with short-term behavioral health care
Why patients benefit from short-term care after discharge
The power of high-quality care and support after discharge
Short-term behavioral health care in action
Where Iris Telehealth fits in

The challenges hospitals face with short-term behavioral health care

When it comes to meeting the needs of patients with behavioral health diagnoses, hospitals, and health systems face challenges related to behavioral health staffing and the ability to provide timely, efficient care. While many patients need care, there aren’t enough providers to facilitate treatment. Currently, hospitals face staffing challenges for case managers, licensed clinal social workers (LCSWs), psychologists, and psychiatrists.

Additionally, pulling together a safe discharge plan can be exceptionally challenging for case management teams, especially if the patient isn’t plugged into an outpatient team. If patients can’t access effective follow-up care after discharge, hospitals may experience an increased risk of readmission, and patients may be more at risk of worsening symptoms. For example, if patients aren’t set up with a provider who can help with medication or therapy (or both) upon discharge, they may risk relapse of unsafe behaviors and medication non-compliance.

Despite these challenges, setting up a solution like Bridge Care Services, for short-term care can help promote positive patient outcomes. This solution fills short-term gaps in ambulatory and post-acute behavioral health care by accelerating access to specialists, achieving measurement-based outcomes, and optimizing reimbursement for a financially sustainable behavioral health program.

Why patients benefit from short-term care after discharge

Patients who enter the post-acute referral queue need care that’s more efficient than what’s offered in traditional outpatient care. These patients are at particularly high risk when they move from intensive acute care to wait for their next outpatient appointment. Ideally, these patients should be seen quickly upon discharge. However, due to a lack of resources and extensive waitlists, they may end up waiting for long periods to see an outpatient provider or may need to return to their primary care provider for a follow-up appointment.

When these patients leave the hospital system, they’re often starting medications or getting medications adjusted. These patients need close follow-ups with labs to ensure they’re tolerating their medicines at the right dose.

Additionally, there are a lot of stressors that come with being discharged. For instance, the hospital creates a very structured environment for the patient where they receive three warm meals daily, have housing, and have supportive people surrounding them. However, when discharged, they may be sent back to the environment that initially triggered them, or did not optimize structure and support needed for on-going recovery and healing.

Treatment isn’t complete once a patient is discharged. While their symptoms may have improved with their current treatment plan, they must be continually assessed, monitored, and potentially adjusted at a lower level of care. All of these considerations make short-term care essential.

The power of high-quality care and support after discharge

A dedicated bridge care program solves access at scale. When a hospital or health system has an extensive referral queue, this solution helps patients get care in a timely manner. Bridge Care Services bridges the gap with short-term care and helps ensure patients can be safely managed by their primary care provider or can safely land with a long-term behavioral health provider.

Here are a few keys to success that Bridge Care Services offers:

  • Financially sustainable programming: Hospitals and health systems can have a financially sustainable program by leveraging a billable navigation assessment and driving top-of-license care.
  • Top-of-license work: At Iris Telehealth, we’ve seen health systems leverage psychiatrists for visits that could be handled in a lower level of care. In some cases, primary care providers refer patients to psychiatrists who could be seen by a therapist or a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP). As a part of the navigation assessment within bridge care, this solution helps ensure everyone is working top of license.
  • Improved clinical care and outcomes: By providing quality, timely care to patients, bridge care improves patient symptoms, reduces hospitalization and escalation of care, and ensures patients are getting better sooner and don’t drive escalations into high acuity levels.
  • Turnaround time for follow-up visits: Bridge care helps ensure visits happen quickly and make it a quality measure. When assessing, the rule of thumb is to see a patient within seven days of discharge.
  • Pool of resources: This solution helps the inpatient team know they have a pool of resources for the patient when they’re trying to arrange follow-up appointments. If there’s a gap, these resources ensure the patient has a safe landing out of the hospital/outpatient setting.
  • Warm hand-off for patient care: Effective communication during the hand-off is crucial for success. At Iris, we use the same electronic health record (EHR) as the healthcare organization, and can help ensure the assessment and notes are documented for the primary care physician and therapist.. The hand-off ensures seamless communication and updates the next provider on the treatment plan, including medication adjustments and patient progress.

Short-term behavioral health care in action

Effective short-term care requires dedicated providers who can deliver appropriate care to patients for approximately 90 days following the initial assessment. For patients who require medication management, effective short term bridge care can include three total visits – one 60-minute initial consultation and two 30-minute follow ups. For those requiring therapy services, many patients require six sessions over the 90 days.

By working with a telehealth solution that is technology-neutral and can integrate into an organization’s patient outreach process, healthcare organizations can seamlessly ensure patients receive the short term care they need to address their mental health conditions and develop treatment plans as needed.

Here’s what people are saying about utilizing Bridge Care Services at their organization:

“One of the biggest advantages was gaining access to a national pipeline. It can be tough to recruit in a rural market, and now we can get talented providers in the door much quicker than before. As a result, we got 20 or so highly talented, very bright and motivated providers on our team in a matter of months.”

Benjamin C. Gonzales, operations manager II, virtual care, at Geisinger Health

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

Bridge Care Services helps ensure patients can manage their symptoms and reach an improved state where they can live a happier, more balanced life. If you’d like to learn how you can best support the patients seeking mental health care in your hospital or health system, contact us today!

How to Advance Mental Health Access with Community Resources and Collaboration

When working with populations facing barriers related to social determinants of health, utilizing resources in the community, combined with telehealth, can help connect them to the behavioral health treatment they need.

Jump through the table of contents below and learn how to increase access to mental health services:

The role of social determinants of health in behavioral health care
Types of partnerships your organization can leverage
How remote providers can connect patients with local resources
Where Iris Telehealth fits in

The role of social determinants of health in behavioral health care

Access to quality behavioral health care is vital to a patient’s health. However, many individuals and families struggle to get the care they need due to social determinants of health (SDOH). Here are a few ways SDOH can impact mental health and quality of life:

  • Finances: More than 1 in 5 patients need assistance to afford their prescription medication. Medication adherence can be a challenge for uninsured patients with costly medication or for those who have insurance that doesn’t cover prescription costs. In some cases, patients have to choose between paying for groceries, their prescriptions, or rent when faced with high prices.
  • Housing Insecurity: Patients who move around a lot due to housing insecurity can face more challenges receiving consistent mental health care. For example, patients often need a home address to qualify for special assistance programs, which can affect their ability to afford treatment. Additionally, many services patients spend time applying and preparing for become obsolete without housing stability. For children, moving around a lot can be disruptive to their education.
  • Food Insecurity: Food insecurity is associated with a higher risk of anxiety and depression. When patients can’t feed themselves, their physical and mental health is impacted. Malnutrition leads to a greater risk for chronic health conditions, which can also increase the risk of depression and other behavioral health care challenges.
  • Education: Receiving immunizations can be a significant barrier for undocumented children, as they often require showing proof of citizenship. When children are forced out of the school system, they lose out on many resources that the education system provides. A lack of education can impact social support, health literacy, and can contribute to poor mental health outcomes.

Let’s take a closer look at the type of partnerships organizations can leverage to help make a positive impact on patients experiencing SDOH.

Community resources to leverage for social determinants of health

Partnering with stakeholders and organizations in your community to fund programs can have many benefits for your patients. While many of these partnerships are non-traditional, innovative efforts through collaboration can improve healthcare outcomes. Here are just a few examples of organizations for potential partnership opportunities:

  • Government: Local governments serve as a vital resource for external funding. They can advance health equity by sharing valuable data on which populations in your community experience worse health outcomes. This information can give insight into the distribution of resources and what resources are available. Additionally, by attending meetings hosted by local government, healthcare leaders can become thought leaders and key stakeholders in the community.
  • Faith-based organizations: Churches, temples, and other religious congregations can improve care delivery and quality of health care for many community members. A religious congregation provides a place to access treatment and preventive services without fear of discrimination or government interference. This advantage is especially helpful for immigrants or refugees who have established trust within their religious community. For example, sometimes child and adult immunizations can be offered at a community’s local faith-based organization without a need for IDs and other paperwork.
  • Educational organizations: Universities, colleges, and schools are a great way to disseminate health and mental wellness resources to the community. Coordinating with schools could look like hosting events together, directly offering mental health services on campus, or developing joint programs to promote student access to health care. Workshops and seminars allow an excellent way to educate students on relevant mental health topics.
  • Mission-based organizations: These kinds of organizations include National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or Mental Health America (MHA) for broad mental health resources, the Trevor Project for LGBTQIA+ youth to support specific underserved populations, and more can expand your organization’s knowledge base and your network. For example, partnering with a mission-based organization that helps veterans can be an effective way to connect with veterans who need mental health care.
  • Community organizations: Food banks, social services, and other community organizations can provide beneficial partnerships. Additionally, connecting with cultural community organizations allows providers to share mental health resources that meet the specific needs of that community.

It’s also essential to attend community events and encourage your on-site providers to do the same.

How remote providers can connect patients with local resources

Telehealth meets SDOH head-on by connecting patients with providers regardless of where they live. Having a provider that provides specialty care, while also helping their clients stay connected with local resources, can help improve outcomes that have the potential to be impacted negatively by social determinants of health.

For remote providers, staying connected to the community they serve can be achieved by being flexible, creative, and proactive in their approach to care. As a healthcare organization, you can encourage your providers to stay connected with their patient’s local resources.

A few ways your providers can achieve this connection is through signing up for newsletters, following local government on social media, and staying informed on the most recent information and events in the community. While telehealth can make providers physically incapable of being there, they have options to connect with their community and stay in the know virtually.

Where Iris Telehealth fits in

At Iris, we partner with communities in need of mental health resources. Through partnerships with community organizations and stakeholders, healthcare organizations can build programs and services dedicated to address the unique needs of the community they serve, including the implementation or improvement of telepsychiatry services. Partnering with Iris allows members of your community to receive the care they need when they need it. Contact us today if you would like to learn how telepsychiatry can help your community.