Contact Us - Episodes of Care

The episodes of care programme is supported by a set of contacts that covers the payers, the practice support vendor and the provider network. Because episodes involve Medicaid and the participating commercial plans, each has its own support line, and choosing the right one depends on which payer is involved.

Provider support contacts

The programme publishes a first line of support for provider queries, and separate numbers and addresses for the different payers and support organisations. A practice should start with the contact that matches the payer for the episode in question, since each payer administers its own relationships with providers.

General enquiries and enrolment applications have their own addresses, as they do for the medical home programme, so that routine questions do not become mixed up with applications that need processing.

The participating payers

Arkansas Medicaid provides support for episodes through its help desk, with telephone, fax and email contact details. The academic support vendor's separate email address is used for episodes of care questions specifically, while the medical home address handles medical home matters.

The commercial payers publish their own contact details for episodes of care and for the medical home programme, and each has a telephone number and an email address for provider support. Having both programmes covered reflects the fact that a practice may be dealing with more than one payment model at the same time.

Support organisations

Beyond the payers, support organisations provide help with specific parts of the programme. The provider network that operates the portal publishes contact details and a secure website for customer support, and another organisation provides behavioural health related support with its own telephone number and email.

The programme also lists the contact details of professional organisations relevant to providers. These channels are useful where the question concerns a clinical area or a group of providers rather than the mechanics of a particular episode.

Getting a useful answer

Contacting the right channel with a clear question produces a faster answer. A query that identifies the payer, the episode and the reporting period in it will generally be resolved more quickly than a general enquiry, because it can be routed to the team that holds the relevant records.

Because contact details change and responsibilities shift, practices should check the programme's current official materials for the list that applies now rather than relying on an older version.

For episodes of care, it helps to know which payer is involved before making contact, because the commercial plans and Medicaid each support their own providers and each holds its own records. A query that identifies the payer, the episode and the reporting period can be directed immediately to the team that can answer it, while a general question may need to be forwarded. Checking the published list first is therefore the quickest route to a resolution, especially when a deadline is approaching.

Because episodes of care can involve several payers, a practice may find it useful to keep the published contact list to hand and annotate it with its own experience of which channel resolved which kind of question. Over a reporting cycle that becomes a small map of the programme's support structure, and it saves the time that would otherwise be spent deciding who to call.

Who supports what

• Medicaid help desk for episodes of care and general enquiries.
• Dedicated addresses for general enquiries and enrolment applications.
• The state's support vendor for episodes of care and medical home questions.
• Commercial payer support lines for each programme.
• The provider network for portal access and technical support.
• Professional organisations for clinical and member support.

Episodes of care contacts

Support contacts and the responsibilities of each channel are reviewed over time. Practices should confirm the current details in the official programme materials before making an enquiry.