The Implementation and Sustainability of Telepsych

Virtual mental health counseling has been around for a few years on a limited basis. The need for psychiatric services has been growing over the years but the access to services significantly decreased as the pandemic negatively impacted the availability of in-person mental health services significantly. To address the public’s need for psychological services, many mental health providers quickly transitioned to virtual mental health care options.  Within the scope of priorities, this discussion will emphasize the necessity of understanding the key potential and existing operational and cost problem areas for telepsych system growth and sustainability as mental health providers continue to face future operational, reimbursement, and environmental challenges. The primary goal of this discussion is to provide an overview of the models of current successes and solutions with a focus on a realistic plan of action.

Points of discussion:

• What is telepsych?
• What are some of the limitations of telepsych?
• Describe some additional safety considerations for telepsych model?
• What are the other regulatory components that play a critical role in the successful implementation of a compliant healthcare delivery model? (What are the legal and regulatory implications of utilizing telepsych in the care of patients?)
• What are the most common bottlenecks and needless duplications of process across a system that would diminish sustainability?
• What are the sustainability issues that need to be addressed and represented from the onset?
• Where do you see the future of telepsych? (What are the future applications of telepsych and how has the potential shift in healthcare reimbursement toward assuming greater risk may impacted health care providers’ use of telepsych?)
• What financial impacts have there been on your organization with the implementation of telepsych?
• Lessons learned – what would you have done differently if you were able to implement telepsych services as a proactive rather than reactive approach?
• The technical and operational issues that must be considered in the equipment selection, use and expansion of telemedicine services.
• What are the the financial and reimbursement implications of employing telemedicine in the care of patients?

Moderator

Stephen Merz,  FACHE,  MHSA, Chief Operating Officer, Sheppard Pratt Solutions, a division of Sheppard Pratt

Panelists

Anton Babushkin, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Startmywellness.com

Amanda May, LMSW, Manager, Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) Program, Henry Ford Health, and Training Director, MI Mind CQI

Paresh Patel, M.D., Ph.D., Clinical Professor, and Medical Director & Ambulatory Care Clinical Chief, and Associate Chief Medical Information Officer for Research, University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine

Registering for this program is a two-step process:

1) Purchase a ticket through Constant Contact: https://conta.cc/3dY1v1t

2) You must register on the ACHE platform to have access to the login credentials and credits. There is no additional cost associated with this second step. If you are NOT an ACHE member you will “create an ACHE.org account”, but you don’t have to become a member.

https://account.ache.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Reg_evt_key=f8c8559d-40f4-4ddd-9831-98bbdb4c3635&WebCode=EvtRedirectorTL&site=ACHE

Registration will close at 11:59 p.m. on September 23, 2022.

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