cih patient portal

What is the clinical resources section of the CIH website?

The clinical resources section of the CIH website contains operational guidance, policies and procedures for primary care mental health integration programs as well as educational materials for patients and informational materials for mental and behavioral health providers who are working collaboratively within Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACTs).

Why choose CIH health?

health with an integrative team. Innovative approaches. Collaborative care. Holistic healing. A place to connect with a health-oriented community, get access to information and tips on health and wellness! lifestyle medicine! Why choose the CIH team? ✓ Making quality Integrative and Functional Medicine care accessible under insurance when possible

What is pcmhi and CIH?

What is PCMHI? The VA Center for Integrated Healthcare (CIH) is a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Center of Excellence. Our mission is to improve the quality of Veterans’ health care by enhancing the integration of mental health services into primary care.

What is the CIH vision?

The CIH Vision is to be a national resource regarding the integration of mental health in primary care. Our mission flows directly from the VHA requirement for Veterans’ medical centers and community-based outpatient clinics to provide integrated mental health services.

What is CIH in healthcare?

To achieve our mission and vision, CIH team members engage in research, education, clinical and implementation initiatives to enhance the delivery of Primary Care-Mental Health services across the country. CIH is organized in research, education, and implementation cores that share the following common set of goals to ensure the team is working toward our single purpose of advancing integrated care to improve the health of Veterans. We organize our efforts through four shared goals:

Where is the CIH located?

Located at the Syracuse VA Medical Center and at the VA Western New York Healthcare System at Buffalo along with virtual team members across the country, the Center for Integrated Healthcare (CIH) was created in response to the growing trend of integrating mental health prevention and treatment services into primary care clinics. The Center consists of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, educators, and implementation experts whose goal is to understand and improve VA's initiative to integrate mental health and primary care services.

What is the VA Center for Integrated Healthcare?

The VA Center for Integrated Healthcare (CIH) is a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Center of Excellence. Our mission is to improve the quality of Veterans’ health care by enhancing the integration of mental health services into primary care.

What is integrated primary care?

In the VA system, Integrated Primary Care is referred to as Primary Care-Mental Health Integration (PCMHI). PCMHI is a form of care where mental health and primary care providers work together to meet the health needs of their patients. In VA, these mental health providers are co-located in primary care and work closely with the members of the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT), including the primary care provider. This team-based healthcare model allows the patient to have a more active role in his or her health care.

Why is integrated primary care important?

Integrated primary care has been found to improve the quality of care and patient satisfaction.

How long does a mental health appointment last?

In general individual appointments with a mental health provider in primary care last 30 minutes or less. Patients are asked questions about physical symptoms, emotional concerns, health-related behaviors and how these might be related to one another. The goal is to come up with a plan for relieving symptoms and improving health.

What are integrated care teams?

Integrated care teams can help create a plan to quit smoking, lose weight, increase physical activity, or to make other improvements in health behaviors. Integrated care teams can address issues such as chronic pain, sleep problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, or irritable bowel syndrome.

What is clinical resources?

The clinical resources section of the CIH website contains operational guidance, policies and procedures for primary care mental health integration programs as well as educational materials for patients and informational materials for mental and behavioral health providers who are working collaboratively within Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACTs). Please consider sharing these tools with the entire PACT. Both co-located, collaborative care providers and mental health care managers may find these tools helpful.

What are the five measures used in PCMHI?

The final link provides a tool that combines the five most commonly used measures (i.e. PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, AUDIT-C, and BAM) in a single document for easier administration.

What is self-report in PACT?

At initial visits, self-report measures can be used to collect data to inform clinical decisions, including whether to follow a patient for brief follow-up in PCMHI or a refer to specialty care. The PCMHI provider can share this data with other PACT members involved in the patient’s care to succinctly inform about symptom severity. This information can also be shared and discussed with Veterans, as part of shared decision making and treatment planning. As the PCMHI provider continues to administer measures at follow-up visits, the provider and the healthcare team can then act to coordinate care and adjust the treatment plan as needed, based on the patient’s response to treatment. Adjustments to the intensity of the treatment can be made based on collaborative decision making that includes MBC data along with input from the Veteran and other PACT members.

What is CCC in PACT?

This section contains resources to support co-located collaborative care (CCC) clinicians practice management techniques congruent with providing mental/behavioral health services in PACT. For example, this section contains strategies and tools to structure appointments within a 30-minute timeframe using a 5As framework. It also includes sample provider scripts and note templates that can assist providers to successfully function within the primary care setting.

Can you use CPT codes for curbside consultations?

A: No, unfortunately there are not CPT codes for brief curbside consultations with other providers in PACT. The team conference codes have very specific requirements for utilization and will rarely be used by PCMHI providers. These requirements are outlined below.

Is patient specific work considered CPT?

For example, some work, such as a Team Conferences without 3 different professions present, does not meet the definition necessary for CPT coding, but is still vital patient-specific work. To account for this critical clinical work, facilities can develop individualized wRVU targets, complete position-specific time-studies, and establish local workload expectations based upon the unique features of that position. There have been some national presentations providing guidance on setting individual provider productivity targets in general as well as specifically setting targets for PCMHI providers, which will likely be assistance to you in speaking with your supervisor about the need for setting an individualized target based on the specific context of working in PCMHI.