CE Webinar: Skills and Strategies for Leveling the Utilization Review Playing Field
Date/Time: Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 at 10am PST/1pm EST
Host: C4 Conferences
For Additional Information: Webinar Registration

Presenter: Elizabeth Irias, LMFT

Presentation Length: 90 minutes

Between the years of 1999 and 2016, the rate of drug overdose deaths tripled in the United States (CDC, 2017), and the national suicide rate increased 28% (NIMH, 2018). Thousands are in need of appropriate and medically-necessary mental health treatment, and insurance authorizations are part of this equation… lives depend on our client advocacy skills. Join Elizabeth Irias, LMFT, a guru in Utilization Review, for an engaging presentation that provides critical strategies to improve concurrent review outcomes in an ethically- and legally-sound manner. As a result of implementing the methods Elizabeth presents, providers report an improvement in the length of treatment authorizations by 15% to 20%, as well as improvements in overall clinical documentation quality and auditing outcomes. This presentation offers key information about managed care systems and Utilization Review-related laws, including the effect of clinical documentation on auditing results ("If it's not in the chart, it didn't happen.") and sentinel incident or legal investigations. Join this presentation to sharpen your skills and better help your clients in need.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Provide one or more definitions for the term ‘Medical Necessity’

2. Demonstrate how to effectively use insurance Level of Care Guidelines during UR calls

3. Outline three or more concurrent review strategies for improving UR outcomes

Beth is very excited to be presenting at the California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists’s 2020 Annual Conference: “20 / 20 Vision: Advancing the Art and Science of Psychotherapy” at Hyatt Regency Orange County, which runs from April 30 – May 2, 2020.

Presentation Information:
This presentation offers key information about clinical documentation-related laws and standards of care that are often unknown to clinicians, and is designed to sharpen the clinical documentation skills of providers, thereby reducing liability risks and improving the quality of client care. Therapists are told time and time again that their notes are legal documents, yet they often receive very little training about what actually needs to be in them. Further, misunderstandings about the legal and ethical requirements for clinical documentation contribute to therapists making inadvertent documentation errors that can have significant consequences for them and for their clients. Clients have lost benefits like short-term disability and insurance treatment authorizations for due to clinical documentation oversights, and clinicians are at risk of licensure loss, criminal investigations, and medical negligence charges due to inadequate clinical documentation. The goal of this seminar is to provide succinct, clear guidance to clinicians in order to clear up misunderstandings and improve overall clinical documentation quality.

Learning Objectives:

1. List three legal or ethical implications of inadequate clinical documentation practices
2. Identify five important components of quality clinical documentation as they relate to Best Practice
3. Provide a general definition of the term ‘Medical Necessity’ as related to Clinical Documentation

For more information, please visit the CAMFT events website.

Title: The Progress Note: Where Law & Ethics Meet Efficiency
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 25th, 2020 at 12pm PST/3pm EST
Host: NAADAC
Additional Information: NAADAC WEBINARS

Presenter: Elizabeth Irias, LMFT

This presentation is geared at increasing addiction counselor understanding of the legal, ethical, and liability-related factors that come into play with clinical documentation, regardless of pay source (insurance, public funding like MediCare, or private pay, etc.) or work context (agency, private practice, etc.). There will also be discussion about strategies for how to conceptualize Medical Necessity and efficiently integrate it into different clinical documentation components. Participants will learn common ways in which providers unknowingly put themselves at risk in relation to documentation practices, Best Practice in clinical documentation, and strategies for clinicians about how to integrate Standard of Care into different clinical documentation components.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. List three legal and ethical implications of inadequate clinical documentation practices

2. Identify five important components of quality clinical documentation as they relate to Best Practice

3. Provide a general definition of the term ‘Medical Necessity’ as related to Clinical Documentation

WHAT: Please join us for our upcoming Open House! Clearly Clinical moved offices in November, and now share a suite with our wonderful colleagues Robert Scholz, Kim Greeley, Julie Frumin, Brian Lee, Lorraine Krane, and Greg Daven.

WHY: Come network with your local colleagues! Catered refreshments will be served, and we'll also have a great raffle, including a free annual podcast Clearly Clinical Continuing Ed package and a $100 restaurant gift certificate. Who doesn't love free stuff!

WHEN: Thursday, August 15th, 2019 from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PDT

WHERE: 2660 Townsgate Road, Ste. 150

Westlake Village, CA 91361

We're looking forward to seeing you!