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Welcome to the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities Services

Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services

Single County Authority

The Single County Authority, formerly the Office of Addiction Services, plans, funds, and monitors substance abuse prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery support services in Philadelphia.

Through a network of treatment providers, the Philadelphia Single County Authority (SCA) guides recovery-oriented drug and alcohol treatment for people enrolled in Medicaid, as well as people who are uninsured and underinsured.

Services Offered

Behavioral Health Special Initiative

The BHSI Program functions as a managed care organization authorizing each patient’s care according to clinical/medical necessity (based on the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria) and referring them to a network of licensed drug and alcohol treatment providers across the region.

In addition to ongoing coordination with the Office of Addiction Services, the BHSI program works with the other components of the City’s Department of Behavioral Health/MRS: Community Behavioral Health and the Office of Mental Health. This allows the program to better meet the needs of clients whose funding eligibility fluctuates between medical assistance and non-medical assistance status as well as clients who have co-occurring disorders (mental health and subtance use disorders).

Staff of this program is composed of dedicated individuals with significant clinical background and knowledge of substance abuse, mental health and health care issues as well as other staff with expertise in billing and computer skills. BHSI is not an entitlement program and has guidelines for treatment.

PMHCC provides critical administrative support to the BHSI Program through its fiscal component, information and human resources management and a variety of other managerial elements.

User Agreement
 
Significant Incident Report

Providers must report all reportable Significant Incidents following a centralized two-step process:

  1. Report the incident by telephone to the assigned BHSI Service Manager or Service Manager’s supervisor within 24 hours of the incident or upon notification of the incident’s occurrence.
  2. NEW! A copy of all reportable incidents must be emailed to BHSI.quality@phila.gov or uploaded to the BHSI Quality Provider Portal. You must have an active user name and password to access.Please do not include Protected Health Information (PHI) in the subject line of the submitted documents

Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health Significant Incident Report Form

 
Approvals and Authorizations
 
PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs
Treatment Services Descriptions
 
Behavioral Health Special Initiative Provider Manuals
 
General Information

Provider Hotline – information about claims and website support.

 
Claims
 
Cost Reimbursement Enhanced Recovery
Notices

The OAS has set deadlines for the submission of utilization and the final expense reports for agencies receiving OAS funds for support Cost Reimbursement services. The deadline information can be found here.

New! BHSI Billing for Fiscal Year 2019 and 2020

NEW! Secure FTP (SFTP) Request Forms – Page 1 | Page 2

NEW! BHSI June 2019 Claims Adjudication Information Sessions

NEW! MAT Provision to BHSI Individuals Fiscal Year 2019

‍Authorization to Release Provider Notice

Significant Incident Report Update Provider Notice

‍BHSI POLICY ALERT – ICD-10 Diagnosis Code Requirements

Provider Notice 14-01– Deadlines for claims for all services except Cost Reimbursement.

‍Provider Notice 16-02 – FY 17 BHSI Provider Agreements

‍Provider Notice 16- – Fiscal Updates

‍Provider Notice 15-01 – Deadlines for all Treatment and Recovery Based Services
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Other Resources

NIATx – Removing barriers to treatment and recovery.

‍Selected Papers of William White – Senior research consultant Chestnut Health Systems.

‍N.A.R.R. – National Association of Recovery Residences.

‍NDCI – National Drug Court Institute.

‍NADCP – National Association for Drug Court Professionals.

‍NIDA – National Institute on Drug Abuse.

‍Addiction Treatment Forum – Reports on substance abuse news of interest to opioid treatment programs.

‍AATOD – American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence.

Recovery in Philadelphia
The William White Papers interviews:

William L. White is an Emeritus senior research consultant at Chestnut Health Systems/Lighthouse Institute and past-chair of the board of Recovery Communities United.  He has been working with the Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services in bringing a recovery-oriented system of care to the city.

 

Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services Home Page

Faces and Voices of Recovery mobilizes those in recovery — along with their families, friends and allies — to recovery community organizations and networks.

People seeking or in long-term recovery, their families and loved ones have a growing number of mutual-aid groups to choose to participate in. Faces and Voices of Recovery offer the Guide to Mutual Aid Resources to assist people in finding resources.

Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services Network of Care directory.

Pennsylvania Recovery Organization-Achieving Community Together (PRO-ACT) is a grassroots advocacy and recovery support initiative of The Council covering Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Mission

The mission of the Behavioral Health Special Initiative (BHSI) Program is to provide assessments, referrals and funding support for persons who are uninsured or underinsured with substance abuse problems and who can access licensed treatment programs. Under the umbrella title of BHSI, the program manages several state and local funding allocations, the largest of which is the Behavioral Health Special Initiative. Programmatically, BHSI operates under the auspices of the City’s Office of Addiction Services (OAS), a component of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services through a contract with PMHCC.

Other Activities

BHSI works closely with the Forensic Intensive Recovery Program and other criminal justice initiatives serving individuals within that system. BHSI staff provides clinical evaluations for forensic clients, identifies community-based treatment sites, and pays for the treatment of those individuals who were mandated by the court to attend treatment in lieu of incarceration.

‍The Office of Addiction Services is also embedded and housed at BHSI that offer non-drug treatment services which support clients while they’re receiving formal treatment in order to address a broad array of needs. The coordination of treatment and core services helps clients maximize their rehabilitation and recovery process.

All Addiction Services-funded outpatient, intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization programs can access core services for clients participating in their treatment program. Core services are also available to criminal justice clients in residential programs, and OAS-funded recovery houses and the Philadelphia Recovery Community Center. These identified services include:

  • Domestic violence counseling-victim perpetrator
  • Life skills
  • GED
  • Literacy/education
  • Parenting skills training
  • Nutrition
  • Anger management
  • Wellness works
  • Therapeutic recreation and housing
  • Credit and financial services

Recovery House Initiative

In 1995, the Philadelphia Coordinating Office for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Programs (now known as the Office of Addiction Services) established a recovery house system for persons enrolled in state-licensed outpatient substance abuse programs. The goal was to improve treatment outcomes by placing people in a positive, stable living environment that is conducive to recovery.

Five recovery house programs were initially launched, operated by people in recovery. Today, OAS has expanded the program to 21 recovery house sites operated by 13 organizations, providing a total of 288 beds across Philadelphia. The Recovery House initiative also offers specialty programs, including women with children, methadone maintenance, staff trained in Spanish and wheelchair-accessible facilities.

Principle program features include:

  • Mandatory outpatient treatment for all residents
  • Full compliance with local L&I housing codes
  • Ongoing communication between the recovery house and treatment providers, case managers, and probation officers
  • 24-hour staff coverage
  • Random, observed urine drug screening
  • Accredited training program for recovery house staff
  • Recovery support core services
  • Resource coordination by case management

The Journey of Hope Project

The Journey of Hope Project offers an opportunity for individuals experiencing prolonged homelessness and behavioral health challenges to embark on a path towards recovery; improve their health and wellness; live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.

 

JOH Mission Statement

The Journey of Hope Project is a collaboration between several innovative long-term residential treatment programs designed to serve individuals experiencing prolonged homelessness, substance use disorders, and co-occurring mental health challenges. The Project is able to admit individuals directly from the street, shelters, and Safe Havens by reducing barriers to treatment admission. Upon completion of treatment, individuals are connected with permanent supportive housing opportunities, as well as ongoing outreach and follow-up to help support long-term sustained recovery in the community.

Journey of Hope locations, including contact information and the number of beds available per location, can be viewed on the map below. If you would like additional information about any of the locations, click on the sidebar icon on the Google Map:

Referrals for all of these programs come primarily from street homeless outreach teams, such as Project HOME, Horizon House, Hall Mercer, Self, Inc, and MHA, as well as from staff located within OSH shelters, DBH safe havens, and winter cafes via Bethesda, Horizon House and Project HOME.

In order for individuals to be considered a potential candidate for the Journey of Hope Project, they need to meet the HUD definition of chronic homelessness i.e. documented one year continuous homelessness or four episodes in three years. This is determined by accessing several city databases that track outreach contacts and shelter history, as well as obtaining additional information from the referring outreach worker/referral source.

All referrals receive a substance use, mental health, and nursing assessment at one of the five Crisis Response Centers (CRC) before being transitioned into the most appropriate setting to meet their needs. All six programs are funded by Community Behavioral Health (CBH), and Behavioral Health Special Initiative Program (BHSI), under the direction of Commissioner David Jones and The Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS).