More on the CANS from the CBHI

Got this via e-mail from the CBHI:

Introduction for New Users of the CBHI application on the Virtual Gateway Conference Call
Are you a behavioral health clinician, clinical director or access administrator who is new to entering CANS data into the CBHI application on the Virtual Gateway? Have you been using the CBHI application but feel that you could use a "refresher" session or "help with the basics"? If so, you are invited to join a Conference Call for New CANS Users on Friday, March 6, 2009 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Jack Simons, Assistant Director of the Children's Behavioral Health Initiative, along with staff from the CANS Training Center and the Virtual Gateway, will discuss using the CANS Application on the Virtual Gateway and answer your questions. We hope you will join us.

Introduction to CANS Conference Call Information
Date: March 6, 2009
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Phone: 866-565-6580
Passcode: 9593452

Please call at least 5 minutes before the conference call begins. In addition to asking questions "live" during the call, questions can be forwarded in advance to CBHI@state.ma.us .


Questions of the Week
As a Clinical Director, how do I verify a behavioral health clinician’s CANS certification?

You can verify a clinician’s CANS certification with him or her directly. Upon successful completion of the CANS certification exam, a clinician will receive an e-mail from the Massachusetts CANS Training Project which verifies certification and provides a unique certification key. This is proof of his or her CANS certification, which is valid for two years from the date of the e-mail. The clinician is responsible for keeping record of the certification notice and providing it to the employer. At any time, a clinician can log into the CANS training website and select “Edit my Information” on the right navigation menu to print the certification information.
To enter the CBHI application for the first time, a clinician must have a valid certification key.

Is MassHealth requiring client consent required to enter SED and CANS information into the Web-based CBHI application on the Virtual Gateway?
The CBHI application is being designed to collect the information from the set of questions titled “Identifying Children / Adolescents with Serious Emotional Disturbances” (SED determination questions)as well as the CANS tool itself (either the “Birth through Four” form or the “Five through Twenty” form). If you have begun to use the “paper CANS,” you know that the SED determination questions appears along with the CANS – there is an instruction page, then the SED determination questions on pages 2 and 3, then the CANS tool itself on pages 4-18 for CANS “Five through Twenty” (pages 4-16 for CANS “Birth through Four”). Although they appear together, both on paper and in the CBHI application, the SED determination questions and the CANS forms are distinct.
Since the first release of the CBHI application rollout involves only the information in the SED determination questions, the application makes no provision for obtaining consent at this stage. When the second release is rolled out, however, it will include features for documenting consent as well as revocation of consent for the information in the CANS tool. Provider organizations will be required to obtain consent using a form prepared by EOHHS and to certify in the CBHI application that such a consent was obtained before entering information from the CANS forms. We will provide much more information about the consent form and consent procedures in advance of that second stage.
Providers have the independent responsibility to examine and comply with applicable federal and state privacy laws, regulations and rules as well as their own privacy policies and practices. A provider should determine the circumstances under which data can be entered into the CBHI application and may also design and use additional consent forms and consent procedures, if the provider believes that is needed.
What will be the consent procedure to enter CANS information into the CBHI application?
Although the second release of the CBHI application is still several months away, we provide here a quick preview of the consent procedure. Before entering information from the CANS forms into the application, provider organizations will need to document consent by the member (or other authorized person) on the form that has been drafted for this purpose by the state,. The consent form will authorize MassHealth obtain the information and to share it with the member’s Managed Care Entity, to be used for specific purposes.
Prior to entering CANS information into the application, the provider will certify in the CBHI application that consent has been obtained on paper.\The paper consent form, with the signature of the member(or other authorized person), will need to be faxed to the state. Provider organizations will be required to maintain the original signed consent in their records.  If the member declines consent, then the CANS will be documented on paper, and only the demographic and the answers to the SED determination questions will be entered into the application. Members will be able to revoke consent. Consent will automatically expire after a specified period of time, although the form will allow the member to specify a shorter period of time if preferred.

Can other state agencies or other provider organizations see the information in the CBHI application?
No. At this time, other state agencies do not have access to any of the information in the CBHI application. Only clinicians who are within the same provider organization can access a member’s information.

Do you have a question? Email it to us at CBHI@state.ma.us and we'll e mail you back the answer.