A host of business problems contribute to you being able to walk into your friendly neighborhood Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) and talk with a counselor quickly.
You may ask, “How can that be a problem?”
If it happens as a course of daily business, this condition can spell financial trouble for the CMHC. David Lloyd is a consultant in the field, and in a recent article for the National Council he points out that what amounts to poor service to you can equate to big money problems for the CMHC. A key situation lies with “medication-only” patients who need medication reviews.
It turns out over one-fifth of the appointments at a sample of hundreds of CMHCs are either cancelled or “No Show”. That’s pretty high. A restaurant losing 20% of its reservations would soon close the doors.
The cancellation is something that can be dealt with handily with sufficient notice. Simply schedule another appointment to fill the staff’s time with a money-generating task. The no show is another matter. Somebody has been scheduled to do some work, and that work won’t get done and is not likely to get done. That can affect somebody’s paycheck, and the baby needs shoes.
It’s like any profession that survives through billable hours…like lawyers. That professional time is being paid for, and in order to keep the doors open, the staff member’s direct work with consumers needs to generate cash. Whether the consumer is on a sliding fee scale and paying the bill, or an insurance company, Medicare, or Medicaid are being billed, work needs to get done in order for the CMHC to get paid.
Cancellations and no shows slashing income can really cramp an organization’s style.
Agencies are taking a number of actions that can affect the consumer. People who are stable, happy and healthy with medications controlling their disorder are less likely to show up for a counseling session, simply because they feel fine.
Looking forward, these medication-only patients are likely to be connected with a nurse instead of a counselor, in order to free that counselor up for scheduling to see somebody who needs therapy. That may be bad news for “walk-in” business, requiring a longer wait to see a counselor, and that’s another problem being dealt with to be included in a future discussion.
This is a common sense solution, addressing a medication issue with a medication professional and making sure therapists help folks who are not feeling fine. In the process, nurses get to do their job and the CMHC benefits in two ways: The therapist’s time is paid because they’re doing the job they want to do, and the nurse is taking care of a consumer that’s been rightly directed to them, which is another billable service.
I love a win-win scenario.
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