MHLA recently announced that eConsult will resume accepting specialty care referrals for individuals who are age 50 and over and ineligible for Full-Scope Medi-Cal. This group of older, uninsured, undocumented individuals who do not qualify for Medi-Cal will continue to have specialty care options available at Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) via eConsult. The new workflow was implemented in the eConsult platform at the end of November 2022. CPs are advised to review the updated Provider Information Notice (PIN) 22 – 11: Bi-Directional Referrals between the Department of Health Services and Community Partners and the new Provider Bulletin #13: Specialty Care and eConsult containing the eConsult Job Aid-Sending eConsults on Medi-Cal Ineligible Patients Who Are Over 50 years Old for detailed information and guidance on the new process.
When submitting an eConsult for 50+ Medi-Cal Ineligible individuals, CPs must select a “Medi-Cal Ineligible Over 50” clinic. It is critical that CPs select the correct region to route the eConsult to the proper specialist who will schedule the patient to a site geographically convenient to them. For agencies with more than one geographic cluster, CPs will have to select a cluster closest to the patient. If the location is inconvenient for the patient, the Provider can request a different facility in the eConsult dialogue or the patient can inform the Specialty Care Linkage (SCL) line at scheduling to request a different facility. Please be advised that some specialties are offered only at specific DHS facilities. In those cases, appointments cannot be cross scheduled.
CPs should be judicious in screening your patients’ insurance status and age eligibility before submitting eConsults for Medi-Cal ineligible individuals aged 50 and over. Any individuals who are Medi-Cal eligible and those with Medi-Cal are inappropriate for a referral through eConsult. Specialty care appointments will be cancelled in the event an appointment was made if the individual qualifies for, or is enrolled in Medi-Cal, or has insurance. For MHLA participants who are ages 26 – 49, CPs should continue to refer through the standard eConsult process using the CP’s regular clinic name.
In other specialty care news, the DHS team is working to remedy the issue of missing specialty notes in LANES. In previous referral meetings, CPs, with a LANES contract had reported the inability to view specialty notes after their patients were seen in a DHS facility. There had been some workflow gaps with the centralized DHS health information database, Cerner ORCHID. The DHS team anticipates that Cerner Orchid notes will be shared with LANES and visible to CPs no later than the 3rd week of December. MHLA will inform CPs when this workflow is resolved, and DHS specialty notes are accessible in LANES. DHS hospital discharge notes were not affected by the Cerner and LANES information sharing and should be immediately available to CPs. If Hospital discharge reports are not appearing for CPs, please send a screenshot to Sothida Tan at stan4@dhs.lacounty.gov in a secure email.
Those who may have missed the meeting or want to review parts of it can watch the eConsult Meeting on the MHLA website under “Newsletters and Presentations.”
We will send a new meeting invite series for 2023, so please be on the lookout for it. We also want to remind everyone to submit any questions before the next meeting so we may address them during the call. If you have any questions, please contact Sothida Tan at stan4@dhs.lacounty.gov.
