Providing Quality Care

The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (CAHPS), the Qualified Health Plan Enrollee Experience Survey (QHPEES), and the Outpatient Mental Health Survey (OPMH) offers your patients and opportunity to report their satisfaction with their healthcare, including their experience with their practitioners, providers and the health plan. The survey results are used to determine whether patients and members are happy with their experience and likely to stay with their practitioner, provider or health plan or if there are opportunities to improve their care and satisfaction with their health care.

You are essential to providing the highest-quality healthcare possible for our members, and your satisfaction is important to us, too. We assess your experience with the health plan through an annual Provider Satisfaction Survey. These survey results will be reviewed by Iowa Total Care and will be key to helping us improve the provider experience, so please be sure to complete the survey if you receive one. Your feedback informs improvement opportunities and quality initiatives.

The OPMH survey is used to assess and improve the member experience with behavioral health, mental health, and/or substance abuse services.

The OPMH survey ask members about healthcare experiences such as:

• Getting treatment quickly.
• How well clinicians communicate.
• Informed about treatment options.
• Access to treatment and information from health plan.
• Office wait time.
• Informed about medication side effects.
• Received information about managing condition.
• Informed about patient rights.
• Ability to refuse medication and treatment.
• Rating of counseling or treatment.

The Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Iowa Participant Experience Survey (IPES) gathers feedback from individuals receiving services through Iowa’s Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). It helps assess members’ experiences and satisfaction with the supports they receive through the state’s Medicaid program, which provides healthcare coverage to eligible low income Iowans. The HCBS survey—formally known as the HCBS CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) Survey—is a nationally validated tool used to measure the quality of home and community based long term services and supports from the member’s point of view.
The HCBS is typically conducted to gather information on various aspects of the healthcare and services provided under the Medicaid program, including how well home and community based services support people’s safety, independence, dignity, and day to day needs.

The Case Management Satisfaction survey is utilized to obtain feedback from participants who receive services from our Case Management program. Upon completion of a care management case that had an active care plan, the member will receive a letter closing out their case and letting them know they will receive a survey via email, text or phone call. Members will receive a satisfaction survey shortly thereafter to complete.

During the credentialing process, Iowa Total Care obtains information from various sources to evaluate your application. Ensuring the accuracy of this information is key, so please review and provide any corrected information as soon as possible. Please review your provider manual regarding this correction process. You also have the right to review the status of your credentialing or re-credentialing application at any time by calling your health plan Provider Engagement Representative.

If your address or telephone number changes, or if you can no longer accept new patients or are leaving the network, please notify Iowa Total Care as soon as possible so we can update our Provider Directory. Having access to accurate provider information is vitally important to our members, and we want to work together to ensure continuity of care can be maintained for members.

Utilization Management (UM) decisions are based only on the appropriateness of care and service and the existence of coverage.

Iowa Total Care does not reward providers, practitioners, or other individuals for issuing denials of coverage or care and does not have financial incentives in place that encourage decisions resulting in underutilization. Denials are based on lack of medical necessity or lack of covered benefit. Nationally recognized criteria (such as InterQual or MCG) are used if available for the specific service request, without additional criteria (e.g., clinical/medical policies) developed internally through a process that includes a review of scientific evidence and input from relevant specialists.

Submitting complete clinical information with the initial request for a service or treatment will help us make appropriate and timely UM decisions. You may discuss any UM denial decisions with a physician or another appropriate reviewer at the time of notification of an adverse determination. You may also request UM criteria pertinent to a specific authorization request or for any other UM-related request or issue by contacting the UM department at the health plan.

Clinical decision-making criteria are available to you electronically at the point of care through Electronic Health Records (EHR), the provider portal and on the Iowa Medicaid Pharmacy program webpage.

Providing quality care to our members includes helping adolescents transition to an adult care provider. If you or one of your patients need assistance in finding an adult primary care provider or specialist, contact Iowa Total Care or reference the information in the Provider Manual. We can assist in locating an in-network adult care provider or arranging care if needed.

The health plan formulary/Preferred Drug List (PDL) is based on the benefits of the plan and is updated on a regular basis. If you believe a medication merits an addition to the PDL, a request may be submitted using the Formulary Change Request form. The current PDL, which includes information regarding covered drugs, restrictions, prior authorization requirements, limitations, etc., is located on the health plan website.

Health equity is the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health. Achieving this requires ongoing societal efforts to:

·   Address historical and contemporary injustices;

·   Overcome economic, social, and other obstacles to health and healthcare; and

·   Eliminate preventable health disparities.

To achieve health equity, we must change the systems and policies that have resulted in the generational injustices that give rise to racial and ethnic health disparities. For more information about Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards, see https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/clas.

Together, we must make language assistance services available to people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) at all points of contact during all hours of operation and at no cost to our members. We are here to help get language assistance to Iowa Total Care members and providers without unreasonable delay at all vital points of contact. You can schedule language services, including telephone and face-to-face interpretation for non-English languages and American Sign Language, by calling our Provider Customer Contact Center or by calling the toll-free number on the back of our member’s ID card. Additional resources are available on our language services webpage.

Iowa Total Care encourages our providers to engage in Cultural Humility trainings and education to promote positive interaction with diverse cultures.

For more information about the Cultural and Linguistic Competency e-Learning Program from the Office of Minority Health (OMH), see https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=1&lvlid=6. This program is designed to build knowledge, skills, and awareness of cultural and linguistic competency and CLAS as a way to improve quality of care.

Our Care Management team is available for members who may benefit from increased coordination of services. The team is available to assist and support providers with member issues including non-adherence to medications/medical advice, multiple complex co-morbidities, or to offer guidance with a new diagnosis.

The care management team helps members:

• Achieve optimum health, functional capability and quality of life through improved management of their disease or condition.
• Determine and access available benefits and resources.
• Develop goals and coordinate with family, providers and community organizations to achieve these goals.
• Facilitate timely receipt of appropriate services in the right setting.

Early intervention is essential to maximizing treatment options and minimizing potential complications associated with illnesses, injury or chronic conditions. Members can receive services through face-to-face visits, over the phone or in a provider's office. You can directly refer members to the Care Management program at any time by calling the health plan or initiating a referral on the Provider Portal.

Every year Iowa Total Care assesses appointment accessibility with PCPs, specialists and behavioral health practitioners. There are established standards for each type of appointment (routine care, urgent/sick visits, etc.) and type of practitioner. Please review the Provider Manual for the expectations of how quickly our members should be able to get an appointment.

Providers are expected to follow member rights. Members are informed of their rights and responsibilities in their member handbook.

Member rights include, but are not limited to:

• Receiving all services the health plan provides.
• Being treated with dignity and respect.
• Knowing their medical records will be kept private, consistent with state and federal laws and health plan policies.
• Being able to see their medical records.
• Being able to receive information in a different format in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Access to language services at all points of contact during all hours of operation and at no cost to the member.

Member responsibilities include:

• Understanding their health problems and telling their healthcare providers if they do not understand their treatment plan or what is expected of them.
• Keeping scheduled appointments and calling the physician's office whenever possible if there is a delay or cancellation.
• Showing their member ID card at appointments.
• Following the treatment plans and instructions for care that they have agreed on with their healthcare.

We encourage you to reference the Provider Manual to review the full list of rights and responsibilities.