Coordination of care

Coordination of care among providers is a vital aspect of good treatment planning to ensure appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and referral. Empire BlueCross BlueShield (Empire) would like to take this opportunity to stress the importance of communicating with your patient’s other healthcare practitioners. This includes primary care physicians (PCPs) and medical specialists, as well as behavioral health practitioners (BH).

Coordination of care is especially important for patients with high utilization of general medical services and those referred to a BH specialist by another healthcare practitioner. Empire urges all of its practitioners to obtain the appropriate permission from these patients to coordinate care between BH and other healthcare practitioners at the time treatment begins. We expect all healthcare practitioners to:

• Discuss with the patient the importance of communicating with other treating practitioners.
• Obtain a signed release from the patient and file a copy in the medical record:
  • Document in the medical record if the patient refuses to sign a release.
• Document in the medical record if you request a consultation.
• If you make a referral, transmit necessary information; and if you are furnishing a referral, report appropriate information back to the referring practitioner.
• Document evidence of clinical feedback (in other words, consultation report) that includes, but is not limited to:
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment plan
  • Referrals
  • Psychopharmacological medication (as applicable)

To facilitate coordination of care, we have several tools available on our Provider website for BH and other medical practitioners including:

• Coordination of Care Form
• Coordination of Care Letter Template - Behavioral Health
• Coordination of Care Letter Template - Medical

The following behavioral health forms, brochures, and screening tools for substance use and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are also available on our Provider website:

• Alcohol Use Assessment Brochure
• Antidepressant Medication Management
• Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale
• Opioid Use Assessment Brochure
• Substance Brief Intervention/Referral Tool (SBIRT)
• Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Parent Rating Scale