Phila.gov
December 6, 2018
PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) today announced that it has launched a brand-new website exclusively devoted to providing content and information pertaining to Community Behavioral Health (CBH), a division of DBHIDS that manages, arranges and pays for behavioral health care for the city’s vast population of Medicaid recipients.
Unlike physical health care, behavioral health care helps people recover from a mental health condition, an alcohol or drug addiction or a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder. And unlike the larger DBHIDS website that focuses more broadly on Philadelphia’s massive behavioral health system, the brand-new CBH-specific site focuses narrowly and appropriately on content pertinent to CBH members and the network of provider agencies serving them. Visitors can easily access both websites from either location.
CBH is a managed care organization within DBHIDS overseeing a robust network of 175 service providers spread out at 700 sites and delivering treatment and related behavioral health services to CBH members – more than 118,000 of whom received services last year. CBH is the only behavioral health managed care organization for Philadelphia County. Seven hundred thousand Philadelphians are eligible to become members and access medically necessary behavioral health services covered by CBH.
The new website, cbhphilly.org, presents a clear message that CBH is eager to help its members navigate Philadelphia’s behavioral health system and get the services they need. It details thoroughly what CBH is, what it does and how it operates as an essential part of the system. The site makes it easier for CBH members to quickly access information about how to obtain mental health and addiction outpatient treatment, enter into a residential rehabilitation program, check into an inpatient psychiatric or addictions treatment program and secure family and community-based therapies.
The website provides a convenient online directory of CBH service providers and an organized list of an array of covered behavioral health services. Crisis, child and adult services are broken down individually along with Medication-Assisted Treatment, the gold standard for treating people with opioid use disorder.
Also available on the site is the CBH member handbook, which contains helpful information about member rights, how to get into treatment and who to contact for help in a behavioral health crisis. The website offers a variety of educational and community resources and a range of health and wellness programs, too. CBH’s leadership, board of directors and most recent annual report can be found on the site, which is available in multiple languages to ensure access for non-English speaking CBH members.
“As we continue aggressively fighting the opioid epidemic, bringing more people into treatment, moving our behavioral health system closer to treatment on demand and expanding access to Medication-Assisted Treatment, we are thrilled to support our existing and future CBH members in their recovery journey by providing easier online access to valuable information, resources and options for treatment through our brand-new and exciting CBH website,” said DBHIDS Commissioner David T. Jones, who is also president of the CBH board of directors.
Joan Erney, chief executive officer of CBH, shared Commissioner Jones’ enthusiam calling the website a “tremendous asset” that makes navigating access to treatment appear less daunting to members. “Virtually everything our members need to know about how to access services, identify a service provider near them, confirm that the services they need are covered, make sure they’re receiving the right services or even seek transportation assistance to get to a service provider is all right at their fingertips,” Erney said. “This makes us very excited for both our valued members and our dedicated provider community that works hand-in-hand with us every day to save lives.”
Service providers can now access the CBH provider manual, timely and archived notices and bulletins, credentialing information, performance standards, compliance details, training opportunities, technical assistance information and contracting opportunities all on the CBH website.
