Update on Specialty Care and eConsult after MHLA
During last month’s Medi-Cal Expansion and MHLA training for Community Partners, we provided updates on upcoming changes with specialty care and eConsult after the end of MHLA. When the Medi-Cal expansion takes effect for all age groups beginning January 1, 2024, the MHLA program will sunset and all participants will be disenrolled from the program January 31, 2024. No new eConsults will be accepted after December 31, 2023 for non-DHS managed care patients and no new specialty care visits will be scheduled after December 31, 2023.
DHS will continue to see Fee-For-Service Medi-Cal patients, but we encourage CPs to speak with your patients to discuss their enrollment in preparation for the transition. Once patients are enrolled in a managed care plan (MCP), we will redirect them to seek specialty care through their new network. Unlike last year’s 50+ expansion, MHLA will not be doing a targeted outreach for high-risk patients. CPs should assist their patients identify a transition plan. CPs are also advised to provide guidance on how to manage any continuity of care (COC) requests. CPs can submit a COC request through the patient’s new MCP should the patient want to continue to receive specialty care at a DHS facility while they are enrolled in a non-DHS MCP.
We understand that after the January 2024 expansion, there will be some individuals who may either be ineligible for Full-Scope Medi-Cal and remain uninsured, or who may not choose to enroll in Medi-Cal. For these individuals, DHS will continue to have specialty care options available through eConsult. CPs should be aware that uninsured patients will be referred to the DHS Patient Financial Services (PFS) team for financial screening before their specialty visit to assess their eligibility for Medi-Cal, sliding scale and other DHS financial programs.
DHS will continue to serve patients who remain uninsured, but there will be new changes for CPs after the sunset of MHLA. Currently, all CPs hold a contract with MHLA for their use of eConsult, a third-party platform for DHS partners and all CP usage fees are covered by the MHLA program. After MHLA, CPs will require a direct contract with Safety Net Connect (SNC), the third-party developer and vendor for eConsult. There will likely be an associated usage cost for CPs to continue access of eConsult. There will be no MHLA staff after the sunsetting of the program on January 31, 2024 to provide support to CPs with eConsult. CPs will need to work directly with the DHS Enterprise Help Desk. In the best interest of your patients, MHLA encourages CPs to pursue a contract with SNC to maintain connections to DHS specialty care and related diagnostics for your uninsured, non-Medi-Cal eligible patients.
More information, including a Provider Bulletin on Specialty Care and eConsult post-MHLA will be shared with CPs as soon as it is available. After the sunsetting of the MHLA program, CPs will be able to reference the Specialty Care & eConsult page with related information on the DHS website.
Notification of Critical Pathology and Radiology Results
Did you know?
Radiology forms in eConsult were updated on April 17, 2023. When logging onto eConsult, you will now see this banner at the top:
*** April 17, 2023: CPs: Radiology forms have been updated with mandatory fields for contact information (person(s)/phone number(s). This will assist in transmitting critical results back to you. ***
CPs will need to utilize the new mandatory fields for contact name, phone number, and fax numbers when submitting a request form for radiology. We hope the new fields will help to prevent delays in reporting your patients’ critical pathology and radiology results and coordinating their follow-up care.
For assistance with eConsult, you can find lots of helpful information (e.g. list of DHS specialties in eConsult, job-aids for all user types, videos) under the My Resources section in eConsult.
If you need additional support with eConsult system questions or issues, please submit your requests to the DHS Enterprise Help Desk helpdesk@dhs.lacounty.gov and include in the subject line
“Attention: eConsult Team”. Please provide as much details as possible (eConsult number, detailed issue, contact information, etc.) to prevent any delays in resolving the issue.
