AUTHORIZATION SERVICES
The Regional Authorization Program was born out of an ETBHN planning session in Galveston in early 2007 with all ETBHN senior staff members. The program started out with 4 Centers and has grown to 19 centers today. The idea behind this program is to take some of the burden of payroll off the centers by regionalizing the prior authorization process. The authorization process is a state requirement. Before ETBHN regionalized this process many centers had one and sometimes two full time LPHA’s that were dedicated just to this role at their center. Once regionalized, we not only were able to create cost efficiencies but also standardize the process.
Centers now served by our Authorization Program include the following:
Member Centers: Access, Bluebonnet Trails, Burke, Community Healthcore, Gulf Coast, Pecan Valley and Tri-County Behavioral Healthcare,
ETBHN initially thought that managed care Medicaid would render this process ineffective but we soon realized the centers still had a need for the clients that remained in the general revenue process.
Regional Authorization Staff consists of one full time Regional Director and several LPHA’s on contract that cover 12 Centers that are responsible for 102 counties.
Interested in information about Authorization Services? Please contact Laura Steelman at 936-633-5634.