The University of Arkansas System’s new health-plan company has been able to attract more psychologists, social workers and nurses into its coverage network since Fayetteville campus employees expressed concerns about mental-health coverage last month but still needs to recruit more psychiatrists, a top administrator said Thursday.
“They’re making some progress,” said Ann Kemp, the system’s vice president for Administration.
“One area where I feel like we don’t have a full panel is psychiatrists,” she added, particularly psychiatrists who treat adult patients.
In October 2012, the system said it was changing the company that administers its self-funded, insurance risk pool for the first time since 1995 as a way to avert higher premiums for the nearly 17,000 covered employees and their dependents statewide.
It switched its plan’s third-party administrator from QualChoice of Arkansas to United Medical Resources, the division of United Healthcare that handles self-funded plans, effective Jan. 1.
Faculty members at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville expressed concerns early on. Last month, the campus’s faculty senate and other employees met with UA System President Donald Bobbitt on the belief that the number of participating mental-health providers was decreasing, with some workers saying their therapists weren’t in the new network or intended to leave it.
A few days later, Kemp asked United Medical Resources for an audit of existing providers and the kinds of services they’re offering. She also asked the company to make another go at recruiting providers on an accelerated timetable.
As of Wednesday, United Medical Resources and United Healthcare’s United Behavioral Health reported having signed three more psychiatrists to the provider network in Washington and Benton counties since the system made its requests. This brings the total number ofpsychiatrists to nine, but Kemp said more are needed.
In addition, United Medical Resources has recruited four more psychologists, bringing the number in the two-county area to 21.
Another area of significant progress is in recruiting “master’s level clinicians,” including licensed clinical social workers and advance practice nurses who work in the mental health field, Kemp said. The area now has 57 of them.
“Thirty-six of those are in Fayetteville proper,” Kemp said, making it convenient for campus employees.
As for the audit of the existing network, United Medical Resources “has done what we’ve asked them to do,” she said. The company reported that its in-network list of providers is accurate and includes whether they accept new patients, whether they serve adults or children, and what kinds of services they offer.
The only caveat is that the list can change.
“People retire. People move,” Kemp said of the doctors and other medical providers on the list. Somemay change their plan participation at times.
Because of the audit, the system office learned that one Fayetteville psychiatrist who treats a number of UA-Fayetteville employees plans to retire in June. “There would have been some disruption there, anyway,” Kemp said.
Employees should keep in mind that a single clinic could include some providers who are in-network and some who are not, Kemp said. Human resources offices on the individual campuses can help employees navigate the network.
Kemp said that if there is any confusion about a medical provider’s network status and the employee went there in good faith, the system will provide coverage regardless of whether the services relate to mentalhealth or physical health.
The UA System office, based in Little Rock, administratively oversees 17 university, college and affiliate campuses throughout Arkansas. The system’s self-insured risk pool differs from a traditional insurance plan in that only eligible employees from the system’s participating campuses use and pay into the system.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/26/2013