Last week was very busy for our behavioral health team. Staff held several community meetings all across the state and met with the people in charge of the Regional Behavioral Health Authorities regarding on the upcoming service package reductions for folks that don’t qualify for AHCCCS benefits. You can see our ADHS Continues to Seek Input Regarding Pending Behavioral Health Changes media release on our home page, and you’ll see Dr. Nelson’s latest video message on our YouTube site. This week we expect to have a clear listing of the new (reduced) benefit package on our website.
In order to preserve as many behavioral health services as we can, it will be increasingly important for our RBHAs to ensure that everybody who qualifies for AHCCCS benefits applies and submits all the required information. We’re encouraging our RBHAs to use the Health-e-Arizona website at https://www.healthearizona.org/app/Default.aspx, which walks applicants through the application process and provides assistance on how to submit necessary documents (i.e., social security card) and prints bar coded fax cover sheets that tie back to the application so documents are not lost in the submission process. It also does a cross-check with other benefit programs and lets applicants know if they might qualify for other programs.
