From the CBHI: What's New in Behavioral Health Screening:

My e-mail today had this from the CBHI:

Primary care providers from throughout the Commonwealth recently attended the provider training forums co-sponsored by Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan, Neighborhood Health Plan, Network Health Plan, and the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP), the behavioral health contractor for the PCC Plan.

Speakers Robin Adair MD, Betsy Brooks MD, Karen Hacker MD, and Alison Schonwald MD, experts in the area of pediatric behavioral health screening, presented information on how to implement behavioral health screening in the primary care practice and introduced the newly developed screening tool toolkits, which provide information on 5 of the more commonly used behavioral health screening tools.

The CRAFFT toolkit, developed by the Department of Public Health in conjunction with MBHP and the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research (CeASAR), provides an overview of how to use of the CRAFFT screening tool in the pediatric primary care setting, what to do if the screen is positive, and guidance on how to bill for the administration of the screening tool and any necessary follow-up counseling. The CRAFFT screening tool is currently available on the MBHP website at: http://www.masspartnership.com/ under the “For PCCs/Support Materials section.”

The Primary Care Behavioral Health Toolkit, developed for the Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative and the PCC Plan by the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP) and the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project (MCPAP), focuses on how to implement behavioral health screening in the primary care setting and how to use the following four MassHealth-approved screening tools: M-CHAT, PEDS, PSC, and PHQ-9. A section of the toolkit is dedicated to each tool and, like the CRAFFT toolkit, information is provided on how to use the tool and what to do when a screen indicates a member has a potential behavioral health need. The Primary Care Behavioral Health Toolkit can be found at the MBHP website at: http://www.masspartnership.com/ under the “For PCCs/Support Materials section.”

Additional information on the requirement to use a standardized behavioral health screening tool when completing the behavioral health component of all EPSDT/PPHSD well child care visits can be found at the CBHI website at www.mass.gov/masshealth/childbehavioralhealth

Screening is the easy part, but we might as well do it properly.