Value Options, The Company That Authorizes Outpatient MH Visits Gives Providers a 'Beta Version' of the Demanded Authorization (old ORF2) Form

Gee, I used to spend about 30 minutes filling in 10 clients' worth of the ORF2 form which I faxed to Value Options in order to get authorizations to see my Medicaid patients and get paid.

Now, Value Options (going electronic, dontchaknow) has created a beta version of this one page simple form that goes on for 8 pages.

You go to the Value Options web page; Providers; Authorization (some such).

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. most of the people you talk to at Value Options at the Clinical Authorization at 1 888 510 1150 will give you wrong information. You best stay on the phone the entire time you go thru this the first time tho they will say, "I can only stay on the call for 2 minutes." Be insistent. Plead mad and stupid.

2. If you have to get up and go see a client while it takes you 15 minutes to go thru the 8 pages, you better save it to the 'DRAFT' ---though one VO person stated "its supposed to save it automatically" (it doesn't).

3. Don't list any of the medications on page 6/ 8 pages where it looks like you should and where you would have given the old ORF2 form. The reason? If your client is taking a medication that is not in the drop-down box category, like Lunesta or Ambien, it will not let you get beyond page 6. No, it does not allow you to classify these hypnotic meds as "Other." The software has no idea what to do w/ that. Instead, contrary to what another person at VO stated, you include the med information in the "Narrative Box" which is on page 5 prior to the medications. Make sure you check "N/A" to all 4 medication boxes even though you have included in the Narrative Section the list of meds and the doses. And include information about whether the client is psychotic. Oops: I forgot to ask if I wrote in the Narrative Box "client experiences A/V/H" if anyone there would have any idea what that means. (Auditory/ Visual/ Hallucinations: standard vernacular for mental health practitioners).

4. If you have to back up and go to a previous page, don't use your back arrow as it will simply lose all the information. I don't know what you do in this case because if you re-enter the authorization form at page one----say you had to get up and actually do something other than paperwork------you have to refill in about half of the information on pages 1,2,3 again.

THANK YOU Value Options for giving the overworked and aggrieved mental health providers of NC the BETA VERSION of your software for which you have undoubtedly been paid handsomely.

Oh, and when you get to page 8, you get a red bold message that states that 'someone is going to look at the authorization and get back to you shortly.' What does that mean, I asked the poor VO woman who had on the phone for about 30 minutes: it means that it has been submitted and if they have any questions about the number of sessions they will call you.

Right. Don't forget to print off that authorization page because once you send in the authorization, you can no way, no how, get back to it. It does not get saved anywhere that the provider can look at it.



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