MEMORANDUM

TO: Mental Health Providers

FROM: Steve Baron

RE: Inpatient admissions for uninsured individuals

DATE: March 17, 2000

As many of you are aware, frequently inpatient beds at state facilities have been filled necessitating long waits for transfers from general hospital units. Mental Hygiene Administration (MHA) in collaboration with Baltimore Mental Health Systems, Inc. (BMHS) has developed a procedure to attempt to meet the needs of the consumers and facilities. There are several components to the plan which are described below:

1. Johns Hopkins Hospital has agreed, depending on bed availability, to accept out of catchment area uninsured patients ( they will also be happy to accept out of area insured patients), if the patient requires no longer than 10 days of inpatient care. To access the Johns Hopkins Hospital bed, follow the same procedure for seeking a state hospital admission. Maryland Health Partners (MHP) is to be called and they will direct you to either Hopkins or the Walter P. Carter Center depending on bed availability.

2. If you are attempting a state hospital transfer of an uninsured individual, currently on a general hospital psychiatric unit, you are to contact the catchment area state hospital and arrange for the admission or sign up on the admission waiting list. (If the individual has insurance and needs longer inpatient care than your facility normally provides, you may want to transfer to a private psychiatric hospital). If it appears the admission of the uninsured individual is not going to occur in a reasonable time period then complete the form available online (see below) and return it to BMHS. BMHS will screen for community placement. If community alternatives are not appropriate, BMHS will forward the form to the MHA for assistance in making the transfer to a state facility.

When an uninsured individual is in a general hospital emergency room and there are no psychiatric beds available in that general hospital and all state psychiatric hospital beds are full, MHA may purchase care on a psychiatric unit (general hospital or private psychiatric). Any hospital interested in being on the list of purchase of care providers should contact Dick Bandelin at the Walter P. Carter Center 410-209-6304. We anticipate this purchase of care will be used infrequently.