How FQHCs Can Build an Effective, Sustainable Telepsychiatry Program

Many Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) have never implemented a formal psychiatry program — much less a telepsychiatry program. But as COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the country, you and your team may find yourselves considering how to build a telepsychiatry program that provides safe, accessible psychiatric solutions to your patients.

Starting a program to provide behavioral health services from the ground up can feel overwhelming. But following these guidelines can help you successfully build a telepsychiatry program for your FQHC that meets patient needs and helps you achieve your holistic care goals.

First, Complete an In-Depth Needs Assessment to Determine Whether a Telepsychiatry Program is Right for Your FQHC

Follow this checklist (in order) to evaluate how a telepsychiatry program would fit into your organization and determine what kind of vendor or telepsychiatry program would meet your needs:

  1. Audit Your EHR: Start by auditing your Electronic Health Record (EHR) to understand how often your organization addresses psychiatric conditions. Note which behavioral health conditions you’re diagnosing most frequently. Also, evaluate medications prescribed to understand which medications your FQHC prescribes the most.
  2. Analyze Psychiatry Referrals: Look at external psychiatric referrals to evaluate how many referrals your primary care physicians are making to external psychiatric facilities — and how long the approximate wait times are for those referrals.
  3. Discuss Staff Feedback: Anecdotes and qualitative information will help you understand how your FQHC’s culture would fit into a telepsychiatry program. Consider surveying your counselors, social workers, primary care providers, and patients to identify care gaps and evaluate your stakeholders’ current thoughts on your organization’s psychiatric care.
  4. Understand the Scope of Psychiatric Needs: Consider your patient demographics, the language and gender of your patient populations, and the complexity of your cases to inform how you approach a telepsychiatry partnership.
  5. Hours and Budget: Understanding the number of hours required and how that compares to your budget will help you shape your telepsychiatry program and the kinds of providers you’ll need to hire. You can also pursue grant funding opportunities if there is a disparity between hours needed and budget.
  6. Regulations: Consider regulations in your state and how they might impact telepsychiatry practices, licensing, and prescribing. Regulations might include whether Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) can practice independently in your state or state regulations about caring for acutely suicidal patients.
  7. Provider Type: You’ll also need to determine whether a physician or psychiatric nurse practitioner best meets your needs. Your state’s regulations will likely inform this decision, as some states might have supervision requirements for PMHNPs.
  8. Other Legal Requirements: Requirements around facility regulations and board certification requirements might affect your ability to implement your telepsychiatry program. If you need help navigating these, let us know. We’re here to help.

After you finish your preliminary needs assessment, you should take a step back and reevaluate your telepsychiatry goals and outline how you plan to measure the success of your program moving forward.

Once You’ve Completed Your Needs Assessment, Evaluate Potential FQHC Telepsychiatry Vendors

You can start evaluating potential vendors if your needs assessment results have proven that your FQHC has the need and the budget to implement a telepsychiatry program.

The first thing you’ll have to do during the evaluation process is to create a checklist to understand your non-negotiable requirements for a telepsychiatry program to ensure potential vendors meet them. Also, ask vendors how their providers are vetted before being recommended for your clinic. Be sure to request referrals from current or past clients to understand how the vendor operates in the FQHC environment. Anytime vendors have Joint Commission Accreditation (JCO), it typically speaks to the quality of their services and their ability to enforce compliance and maintain effective processes.

Because telepsychiatry employs technology differently than traditional psychiatry solutions, you’ll want to evaluate the vendor’s bandwidth for technology support, support hours (whether availability for support is 24/7 or restricted), and whether the vendor will be available on the go-live date. Pay close attention to how they deal with privacy and security, as your telepsychiatry solutions will house sensitive patient information.

After You’ve Chosen a Telepsychiatry Vendor, It’s Time To Begin Implementing Your Program

Implementing a telepsychiatry program at your clinic can be a time-consuming process. These eight steps can help streamline the process:

  1. Credentialing: As soon as you select a member and are matched with a provider, start the credentialing process. Your provider will need to be licensed in your state. Then you’ll need to obtain a license from the DEA and begin credentialing at your facility. This process will vet the provider’s work and education history and verify their references.
  2. Assembling Your Implementation Team: You should begin assembling this team during the credentialing process, and the team should include your clinical lead and key decision-makers.
  3. Assembling Your Telepsychiatry Care Team: Your telepsychiatry care team will be separate from your implementation team and may include desk staff, nurses, medical assistants, counselors, telepsychiatry providers, and administrators.
  4. Training Your Staff: Create workflows specific to your front desk, support staff, and billing/coding team with the ability to scale as your telepsychiatry program grows.
  5. Review Your Technology Workflows: Carefully plan how your technology use and workflows will fit with your telepsychiatry provider before your program’s go-live date, and consider retraining your team on your privacy and security standards.
  6. Decide Your Provider’s Schedule: Consider how many days and hours you will need your telepsychiatry provider to work and ensure you have adequate staffing for that plan.
  7. Market Your Telepsychiatry Services: We recommend beginning recruitment for referrals six weeks before your go-live date — beginning with internal counselors and primary care physicians.
  8. Go-Live: Make sure you plan to do a test run a few days before you’re ready to go live, then you’ll be ready to launch your program!

By Following These Guidelines, You’ll Be Well On Your Way To Starting a Successful Telepsychiatry Program For Your FQHC

Starting a new telepsychiatry program can be intimidating, but fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We’ve seen many FQHCs create successful telepsychiatry programs to serve their communities in creative ways.

To learn more about how Iris Telehealth can help you get your program off the ground, contact us, and we’ll get you the information you need.

Why CMHCs should consider building a formal telepsychiatry program

Many Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) had never implemented a formalized telepsychiatry program before COVID-19. Then, the pandemic forced them and other behavioral health organizations to adapt quickly to a world where telepsychiatry was necessary. Now, many CMHCs are looking into building a sustainable future that incorporates telepsychiatry into their core services to support their patient populations.

It can seem like an overwhelming process at first! But, we’re here to help you get started.

How to build a sustainable telepsychiatry program for your CMHC

As a CMHC, you may face challenges dealing with patient surpluses, lack of quality providers, and difficulty achieving continuity of care – especially if you’re based in a rural community.

A formal telepsychiatry program can help alleviate some of these challenges by allowing you to pull from high-quality providers from different cities and states.

Fortunately, the steps you need to take to get your program started don’t have to be complicated.

  1. First, audit your EHR: Take note of how your organization addresses certain psychiatric conditions and your current patient wait times for mental health services.
  2. Talk about telepsychiatry with your team: Consider how a formal telepsychiatry program will fit into your CMHC’s culture and help you deliver comprehensive mental health care.
  3. Understand the scope of your needs: Think about your patient demographics, what provider type you need, how complex your cases generally are, your CMHC’s mission, and any other language or cultural considerations that are important for your community.
  4. Know your hourly and budgetary needs: Think through how long your current waitlist is and how many service hours would be a good fit for your organization.
  5. Check regulations for your state: Regulations can vary substantially from state to state. Understanding what the landscape looks like where you live is a critical first step.

Once you tick all these boxes, look back at your original goals and consider whether you need to make any changes or adjustments.

Once you lay out your strategy, it’s time to consider telepsychiatry vendor partners

It’s important to carefully vet potential telepsychiatry vendors to ensure they’ll be a good fit for your organization. Before you do anything else, create a checklist to understand your non-negotiable requirements for your telepsychiatry program.

When you’re talking to vendors, ask them how they vet their own providers. Make sure you request referrals and ask hard questions about their quality control processes, how they handle provider implementation, and how they track their own goals. This information should give you a good idea of how they would fit your CMHC’s culture and processes.

Also, analyze vendors’ bandwidth for technology support, their support hours (whether availability for support is 24/7 or restricted), and whether the vendor will be available on the go-live date.

CMHCs should find behavioral health providers who can adapt to their existing workflows and be long-term partners. And remember, the goal is not to replace in-person care but to supplement your existing team of behavioral health providers to better support your patients and improve your quality of care.

We can’t stress this enough – vendor culture fit is crucial to the success of your CMHC’s telepsychiatry program

The right telepsychiatrist can be an invaluable part of your team. For example, one of our Iris CMHC partners realized one of their local psychiatrists was responsible for over 50% of their patient population. They sought out a telepsychiatry partnership to mitigate their risk and diversify their pool of providers. Other Iris Telehealth partners were able to decrease their wait times from one year to five weeks and manage a 180% increase in client intake through their telepsychiatry programs.

As you’re building out your program and working with telepsychiatry vendors, it’s crucial that you carefully vet any potential clinical partners. You’ll want to ensure they provide high-quality care, have experience working with populations similar to yours, and share your CMHCs mission and vision for behavioral health care.

Once you’ve found the right vendor for you, it’s time for implementation and logistics

This process can be time-consuming, so make sure your schedule addresses these steps before your projected go-live date:

  1. Licensing and credentialing: Plan for this to be the longest part of your organization’s implementation process. You should start this process immediately in collaboration with your vendor partner.
  2. Put together your implementation team: This team should include key decision-makers who will be involved in the telepsychiatry program as well as your clinical lead. At Iris, we also recommend having a dedicated “Telehealth Champion” to act as your primary telepsychiatry liaison.
  3. Assemble your telepsychiatry care team: Your care team might include front desk staff, nurses, medical assistants, counselors, and administrators.
  4. Train your staff: You will likely have to create dedicated workflows to help your staff integrate your telepsychiatry program into your organization.
  5. Make sure your technology is in order: Review your technology use and workflows ahead of your go-live date. You may also be able to lean on your telepsychiatry vendor partner for tech support and guidance.
  6. Get the word out about your program:Ahead of your go-live date, start informing your patients and community about your new telepsychiatry services. We recommend doing this work six weeks before your launch date.
  7. Go-live: 24-48 hours before you plan to launch, we recommend going through a dry run to ensure everything is in order. Then, it’s time to officially start services!

Setting up your CMHC telepsychiatry program can feel like a lot of work, but it’s worth it

You can build a better future for your patients and communities by supplementing your critical behavioral health services with telepsychiatry. We’ve already helped many CMHCs create successful telepsychiatry programs to serve their communities.

To learn more about how Iris Telehealth can help you get your program off the ground, contact us, and we’ll get you the information you need.

The Role of Medical Credentialing for Remote Providers

Medical credentialing is the process of establishing the qualifications of licensed medical professionals and assessing their background and legitimacy. It is one of the most essential pieces of implementing a telehealth program in a timely manner. But what goes into this process for remote providers?

Keep reading to learn what it takes to get a remote provider licensed and credentialed in your state, what’s included in medical credentialing, and how taking the necessary steps for licensing and credentialing helps ensure patient safety.

What is included in medical credentialing?

Hospitals and clinics have a duty to their patients to thoroughly evaluate the experience and skills of their medical staff. They can be held liable for patient injury or mistreatment if they fail to do so. That makes working with an experienced partner who knows the ins and outs of medical credentialing essential.

Typically, the provider’s documents are collected and reviewed for the following:

  • Medical education
  • Postgraduate training
  • Medical licenses (active and historical)
  • DEA registrations
  • Controlled substance registrations
  • Continuing education credits and compliance
  • Board certifications
  • Employment history
  • Privileges/affiliations history
  • Professional liability insurance policies held
  • Malpractice claim history, including statements from the clinician and court documentation (if applicable)
  • Peer reference evaluations
  • Federal and/or state background check, often completed via fingerprint collection
  • Health screenings like drug/alcohol tests, general physical assessment, and anything necessary for physical interaction with patients, such as a TB test or flu shot
  • Online databases – the National Practitioner Data Bank, the Office of the Inspector General’s exclusion database, Medicare’s Opt-Out Affidavits database
  • Personal identification like (driver’s license, passport, and social security card)
  • Clinician’s personal attestation history
  • Disclosure of conflicting financial interests

The list can vary from facility to facility based on their bylaws and group accreditation requirements. Regardless of the requirements, the purpose is to protect the population from medical negligence and malpractice. While it seem that a physician “passing” the credentialing assessment from one facility would mean subsequent facilities should follow suit, history has proven that this assumption can be dangerous.

How medical credentialing helps ensure patient safety

The repetitive and detailed nature of credentialing is designed to protect patients and ensure the legitimacy of a physician’s medical license. However, it is possible to improve the efficiency and speed of credentialing without compromising quality, and this process is what our team at Iris does best. Our main goal as a telemental health company is to bridge the gap in the availability of psychiatric care across the country. We are successful because our goal is to prioritize quality care, and make thorough, diligent, and efficient credentialing our priority.

The role of provider matching in licensing and credentialing

At Iris Telehealth, we recruit and hire top-notch clinicians and help them find placement in our partner facilities across the country, a process we call “provider matching.” Provider matching helps ensure organizations get the best fit for their care team and patients.

Unlike many staffing agencies and locum tenens groups, these matches are meant to be as permanent as a typical onsite provider’s position would be. Providers are Iris employees and treated as independent contractors by the organization they are matched with. We also serve as mediators to ensure the relationship is successful for the long-term. This approach positions patients to get the highest level of care while also helping support the provider’s well-being.

One important benefit of the provider matching process is helping ensure the organization is matched with a clinician who can provide the right specialty care to patients, regardless of location. At Iris, we make that happen by getting the provider fully credentialed and licensed in the state where they’re placed. That way, nothing is standing in between your patients and they care they need.

About Iris Telehealth

Iris Telehealth has helped countless hospitals and community health organizations across the country add telemental healthcare to their list of services while matching them with the best providers for their communities.

We manage all the costs associated with recruiting, supervising, and supporting the best doctors, including paying their salary, PTO, medical benefits, 401k, malpractice insurance, licensing and credentialing fees, and CME expenses.

We believe everyone should have access to compassionate mental health care, and we have made it our mission to find innovative, affordable ways of making this possible! If you’d like to learn more about our services, contact us today.

A Guide to Mental Health for Healthcare Workers

This past year, we have spent countless hours celebrating our healthcare heroes. We are so grateful to everyone who has worked tirelessly to fight the coronavirus pandemic and all of the challenges it has presented. However, we know gratitude alone is not enough — healthcare workers are physically and emotionally exhausted, and they need a helping hand. A recent survey done by Mental Health America showed 93% of healthcare workers were experiencing high stress levels, and 76% were feeling the symptoms of burnout. Healthcare workers are absolutely essential to keeping our society up and running, but they need support and relief from the stress of their daily work.

Read on to learn more about the mental health challenges facing healthcare workers, as well as what they (and their organizations) can do to take care of themselves.

Healthcare workers face a unique set of mental health challenges

Healthcare workers are on the front lines every single day. Whether providing physical health services in an emergency department or behavioral health services in a psychiatric unit, they are constantly face-to-face with challenging and tiring work. Behavioral health providers in particular deal with difficult, heavy subject matter so often they can become desensitized to their work — or end up taking it home with them after clocking out.

During COVID-19, these challenges only amplified. Visits to the emergency room drastically increased, particularly for children and adolescents. Rates of suicide and substance relapse have both skyrocketed. And, the already high demand for psychiatric providers grew even higher as the U.S. faced a mental health crisis. Through it all, providers started seeing more and more patients in crisis, all while trying to manage their own personal lives and health — a combination that can lead to burnout.

If healthcare providers are struggling with their mental health, they’re not going to be able to take care of others as well. Some of the most common symptoms of burnout are isolation and avoidance. Providers may start to withdraw from their teams, becoming less involved in the workplace and less enthusiastic about clocking in every day. They may also avoid seeking care, convinced they can deal with their mental health challenges all on their own — which can lead to difficulty with focusing, concentrating, and decision making.

Healthcare providers need to keep up with their own mental health to ensure they are making the best decisions for their patients.

Provider burnout affects both providers and their patients

Many providers fall into the trap of thinking they’re not as susceptible to behavioral health conditions as their patients are. After all, they’re trained mental health professionals. However, no one is immune to mental health conditions or challenges — even psychiatrists and behavioral therapists.

If you are in a leadership role within your organization, consider taking preventative measures to ensure your providers are getting the support and resources they need. Some warning signs someone may be struggling with burnout are:

  • They are more irritable than normal
  • They aren’t attending team meetings, and seem to be withdrawing themself
  • They lose interest in activities or job tasks they used to enjoy
  • They are making more mistakes on the job
  • They seem to be more and more tired every day

A lot of provider burnout comes from being overworked, and some level of burnout is almost inevitable after the past year. However, it’s important to give your team the rest they need. Encourage your healthcare workers to prioritize both their physical and mental health and allow them to take time away from work when they need it.

One of the most important things you can do is have an open line of communication with your team and set realistic expectations for them. Being a healthcare professional is a challenging job, and your team should have a clear picture of what that looks like within your organization.

Resources are available to help

Fortunately, there are online resources readily available to help both providers and organizations dealing with burnout. One of the best sources is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Check out their comprehensive guide on dealing with stress and compassion fatigue and dive into what compassion fatigue looks like in providers.

Another resource available to your organization is telepsychiatry. Many organizations struggle with provider burnout because the few behavioral health care workers they have on staff are overworked. At Iris Telehealth, we understand the shortage of behavioral health care workers and want to work with your organization to bridge the gap. We recruit the best psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners from around the country and connect them with organizations in need.

Healthcare workers: let yourself rest

Mental Health America’s recent study on provider burnout gave us the startling statistic that 82% of healthcare workers feel more emotionally exhausted now than they did just a few months ago. Even more startling is over 40% of those participants said they didn’t feel like they had adequate emotional support. You should never feel ashamed to reach out for help, regardless of your profession. We’d like to leave you with a resource list in case you ever do feel the need to get help:

We understand that the healthcare industry is physically and emotionally taxing, and we’re so grateful to providers everywhere for all that they do. If your organization is feeling the weight of increased numbers of patients and burnt-out providers, contact us today. We’d love to talk to you about the difference telepsychiatry can make in your practice!

Breaking Down the Latest Grant Opportunity for CMHCs

Calling all CMHCs!

The SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) is currently accepting proposals for their new 2021 grant program. They’re estimating about $825,000,000 in available funding for between 165 and 825 organizations. These funding awards are exclusively available for Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs). If you’re a CMHC, this program could be a great opportunity for your organization to expand or improve your behavioral health services.

We broke down the program requirements, details, and deadlines so you could decide whether or not to pursue an award.

What the CMHC Grant Program entails

The FY 2021 CMHC Grant Program is an initiative to help enable CMHCs to offset the impact of COVID-19 on their behavioral health programs and empower them to improve or expand services. In particular, this program seeks to help organizations meet the needs of patients with serious emotional disturbance (SED), serious mental illness (SMI), or co-occurring disorders (COD).

Here are some of the key details of the project:

  • Applications for grant awards are due May 21, 2021
  • Awardees can expect to receive between $500,000 and $2,500,000 per year as part of the program
  • Funds will start arriving as soon as September 30, 2021
  • Awardees will receive their funds for up to two years

Organizations should plan to have at least one staff member to serve as Project Director. This staff member must complete work related to this project for at least half of their full-time work role.

What your CMHC needs to submit as part of your application

Each application must focus on the following required activities:

  • The total number of individuals you expect to serve as part of this project
  • How you plan to establish or improve your organization’s infrastructure to support HIPAA compliant telehealth services
  • How you’ll use this grant to provide services for individuals with SED, SMI, and COD
  • Plans to provide trauma-informed screening, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment
  • Provisions for clinical and recovery support services (such as psychosocial rehabilitation, case management services, and peer support)
  • And resources you’ll use to address the overall mental health needs of your CMHC

Your organization must submit a “Project Narrative” as part of your application. The Project Narrative should contain the following five sections and should not exceed 10 pages total:

  1. Population of focus and statement of need: In this section, you should identify your patient populations and their general demographics, how the pandemic impacted your revenue and ability to provide services, and the current state of need for patients with SED, SMI, and COD.
  2. Proposed implementation approach: In this section, you’ll describe the goals and measurable objectives of your project, how you plan to implement the required activities for this award (and any additional activities you plan to focus on), and a realistic timeline for how you plan to use the funds over the next two years.
  3. Proposed evidence-based service/practices (EBPs): In this section, you’ll discuss how each EBP you choose is appropriate for your patient populations and the outcomes you want to achieve.
  4. Staff and organizational experience: In this section, you’ll describe your CMHC’s experience providers services to patients with SMI, SED, and COD, a list of staff (with titles) who will be working on the project, your project staff’s experience, and any other organizations you plan to partner with for your project.
  5. Data collection and performance measurement: In this section, you’ll break down how you plan to collect data around your program — as well as how you’ll manage or monitor that data.

Note: The above list reflects the top line requirements for your application. If you’re planning to apply for funding, be sure to read the grant announcement in its entirety for more information on what you need (or are allowed) to submit.

How your CMHC can apply to this grant program

In order to apply for a grant with the 2021 CMHC Grant Program, you must register with NIH’s eRA Commons. SAMHSA recommends that you begin the registration process as soon as you think you want to apply. That means you should start the process ASAP so you don’t miss out on this potential opportunity!

In addition to eRA Commons, your organization should register with three more organizations to apply for a grant:

  1. Dun & Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System
  2. System for Award Management (SAM)
  3. Grants.gov

Once you’re registered, you can complete your application using eRA ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace, or another system to system (S2S) provider.

To get started, visit Grants.gov or the SAMHSA website and download all the required documents.

Be sure you read the full grant program announcement carefully before you start preparing your application materials. You can find all the details here: https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/grant-announcements/sm-21-014

This grant program is a perfect fit for CMHCs looking to impact their communities and improve their services in the wake of COVID-19. It also offers some excellent opportunities for CMHCs to incorporate more formalized telepsychiatry offerings into their organization. If your organization is interested in building a sustainable telepsychiatry organization as part of your grant proposal, check out our comprehensive guide for CMHCs.

Which Telehealth Grant Funding Source Is Right For You?

Once you’ve identified your organization’s telehealth needs, you can begin to search for grant funding sources to cover project costs and investments. In the early stages, this process can feel overwhelming — either from not knowing where to begin or from information overload. It’s important to learn the basics of how to find grant funding sources, including the different types of sources available to your organization.

We continue this blog series on telehealth grant funding with an overview of the four main types of funding sources — foundation funding, corporate funding, state funding, and federal funding — and common terminology to categorize them as you begin your research.

Foundation Funding

Aside from large national foundations, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, foundation funding tends to be either regionally based or specifically focused on the individual foundation’s area of expertise.

Securing grant funding from these foundations often relies on relationship building. Many foundations do not accept unsolicited applications unless they issue requests for proposals. Pivot your approach, identify foundation staff and the decision-makers on the foundation’s board, and develop those relationships.

Additionally, look at foundations that accept applications, and learn when that process takes place. Often foundations are made of family members or boards that may meet once or twice a year. But these foundations don’t always offer defined dates for when the next round of funding and its corresponding application deadlines will be. Still, dedicating time to researching these deadlines could mean opening up new doors to funding opportunities.

Corporate Funding

Project alignment with grantor goals is critical when seeking corporate sources as part of an overall telehealth grant funding strategy. Corporations may have specific goals or parameters for projects that may exclude or uniquely fit your particular telehealth project, particularly in terms of industry and geographic location.

Investing time into researching corporate funding also means determining how you should approach different corporations. Some corporations have set up separate foundations to handle grant funding, which you’ll be able to find while performing your due diligence. If that’s the case, you may try relationship-building with individuals employed by the corporation or on its foundation board in addition to responding to general requests for proposals.

State Funding

To utilize state-based grant funding, you need to determine which agencies at the state level are in charge of telehealth and related programs. After making those initial determinations, it’s essential to identify how they accept applications and distribute funds.

For example, some state agencies award funding through competitive applications, while others may distribute the funds based on an internal formula or have funding passed through another entity.

You should determine when agencies will present their schedule for applications so you can have adequate time to put together a competitive proposal. State funding often gives limited application windows, sometimes just six to eight weeks before a proposal is due. And if you’re looking at something complex, like a telehealth proposal, you need to work in advance. That way, when that schedule is released, you’ll know what’s required and expected of your application, and you’ll be more prepared to submit it.

Federal Funding

Federal funding typically represents the largest grants. Grantors announce these opportunities regularly on Grants.gov, you should pay close attention to the application submission window. This process takes time, organization, and planning ahead of time — including regular monitoring of the Grants.gov website.

Another aspect of sourcing federal grant funding is being in communication with the federal agencies and their staff. They will share information with you about the next cycle of funding and the amount of federal funding allocated to their programs, which predicates grant funding availability.

Note Whether Funding Sources Are Labeled Active, Inactive, or Pending

While performing your search for grant funding sources, you will come across terms like “active,” “inactive,” and “pending.” These may impact whether and how you include a particular grantor into your application timeline and schedule.

Active programs mean there is money presently available, and the funding source is welcoming new projects to apply for funding. Grantors may accept applications or letters of inquiry year-round or open for applications at limited periods of time throughout the year.

Inactive programs are not currently open to applications for funding. A program could become inactive because they accomplished their goals, revisited their goals, or experienced budget cuts that impacted their ability to fund projects. Inactive could signify an organization is permanently closed to applications, or they may be planning to return to an open, active status in the future.

Pending programs are programs that are not currently awarding grants. It may not be the time of year for their funding applications, or they may be waiting on federal budgets to pass so they can assess funding availability. Pending programs may be especially common during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marian Chambers is a Grants Consultant at Professional Grant Writers, a full-service grant writing agency that works with nonprofit organizations to identify and apply for grants to fund their programs.

How and Why to Identify Your Telehealth Grant Funding Needs

Grant funding offers healthcare providers opportunities to implement and expand telehealth programs within their practices. But many providers’ grant-seeking efforts stop before they’ve really begun because they haven’t clarified their specific needs for telehealth services and funding.

By identifying your organization’s telehealth needs, you can gather and discover information that informs your grant search’s direction. This approach enables you to rule out opportunities that do not align and significantly narrows the search, making the process much less overwhelming.

Over the next few weeks, we’re putting together a blog series to help provide tips and insights that will help you through the grant funding process. In this piece, we’ll take a look at how and why your organization should identify your telehealth grant funding needs first before beginning the application process.

Ask Yourself Key Questions to Identify and Specify your Telehealth Needs

Before beginning your search for potential grantors, ask yourself the following questions to begin to identify and narrow down your telehealth needs:

  • What do you want to accomplish? Identify specific goals, metrics, or improvements you wish to see for your organization, community, and patient populations.
  • When do you need to have this completed? Consider the timing and urgency of your funding needs alongside the schedule and availability of grantor funds to guide your application choices and timelines.
  • What population(s) do you want to serve? What specific needs do these patient populations have, and what common challenges do they face that could be alleviated by telehealth access? Your program is more likely to succeed if you align your funding needs with their needs for services.
  • Where will the initiative be located? Your geographic location can limit the scope of an overwhelming grantor search while also generating leads for region-specific opportunities available in your area.
  • How much money will you need to secure to complete this project? The nature, size, and costs of telehealth projects can vary widely, as can the allocation of funding each grantor provides. Because application rejection is common and funds remain limited, you will likely consider multiple grant funding sources throughout the application process.

The answers to these questions will provide you with parameters you can use while reviewing various funding sources. These parameters focus your search and enable you to make more informed decisions about how to proceed.

If you’re unsure of where to focus your telehealth project, begin with the most common needs and most common sources of priorities for telehealth funding.

Consider medically underserved communities and areas of medicine where healthcare organizations struggle to attract and retain patient populations and providers. For example, rural areas, low-income communities, and tribal nations frequently generate targeted grant funding opportunities because grantors recognize that access to healthcare is a common need in those communities.

Another area that tends to attract greater needs and funding opportunities is communities with defined health disparities, particularly those that are well-documented by reputable third-party research. These can include comorbidities such as obesity, hypertension, and heart disease, which may be prevalent in a particular patient community. Similarly, grant funding opportunities may target common mental health comorbidities such as addiction and anxiety, mood, or personality disorders.

By considering common needs in the community you serve, your organization can better determine the scope of the project you want to implement. This also enables you to narrow your grantor search and identify potential funding sources that are more targeted and aligned with your telehealth goals.

Gather Input From Any Stakeholders, Especially Clinicians, as Well as Colleagues and Peers

Discuss goals and ideas with the individuals on your team who will be using the telehealth technology or are otherwise involved with the program, and gather their input and feedback. This includes your administrative staff and clinicians as well as any other departments, executives, or board members assigned to review and approve such projects.

These discussions should include your clinicians. Take the time to determine what they need, feel comfortable with, have time and energy for, and which systems they feel would best meet the needs of your organization’s patient base. Generating buy-in and input from your clinicians is critical to the successful implementation of telehealth services and technology once you receive funding.

Outside of your organization, speak with peers, colleagues, and even competitors for input on your telehealth goals and plan. Find out what has and hasn’t worked for their own telehealth efforts to inform your own plan and application. Some grantors share information about past grant award winners, who you can also contact for input and networking.

Grant seeking can feel overwhelming. But rather than looking at the totality of funds available, try to narrow your search strategically by clarifying your needs from the beginning. This saves you time later on in the process as you search for grantors and prepare your funding applications.

In the next post of our series, we’ll explore different types of grantors you can consider in your search for telehealth grant funding sources.

Marian Chambers is a Grants Consultant at Professional Grant Writers, a full-service grant writing agency that works with nonprofit organizations to identify and apply for grants to fund their programs.

How to Deal With Amplified Holiday Depression During COVID-19

The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, but for many people the holiday season is a time of sadness and loneliness. With the isolation, health concerns, and financial challenges brought by COVID-19, mental health professionals expect holiday depression to be much worse this season.

“There is a greater degree and intensity of anxiety, stress, and depression because of the pandemic,” says Thomas Milam, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer of Iris Telehealth.

“Those who were previously struggling with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse are especially vulnerable at this time,” he says. “We don’t do well when we’re alone and suffering from depression and anxiety, so the isolation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 makes depression more difficult.”

For those who have lost jobs, the pandemic’s financial strain is also contributing to stress and anxiety. “I have admitted people to the hospital who are suicidal because they are tired of the stress of COVID, and tired of the financial pressure on their family without seeing an end in sight. They feel helpless about being able to do anything about it,” Dr. Milam says.

Chronic stress makes certain health conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes, worse because of the inflammatory chemicals produced by the brain when we are stressed that circulate throughout the body.

How You Can Cope with Added Stress this Holiday Season

Dr. Milam has witnessed resilience on the part of patients and their families who have adapted to their situation. Many have been using video platforms, such as Zoom and FaceTime, to keep in touch. He notes that with the upcoming COVID-19 vaccines, there is reason for optimism that 2021 will be a better year.

In the meantime, Dr. Milam offers these tips for coping with the current impact of COVID-19 and holiday-related stress:

  • It’s okay to “own” your stress. You don’t need to be stoic or pretend everything is fine. Expressing your feelings with family and friends is especially important during times like these.
  • Make an effort to connect with people via phone or text to find out how they are doing.
  • Don’t abandon healthy habits. Exercise helps. Take a walk outside. Do some stretching or find online classes such as yoga. Eat healthier foods, including fruit and vegetables.
  • Take slow, deep breaths three times each day to increase your feelings of well-being. Also, listening to music, meditation and prayer can be helpful.
  • Try to make someone else’s day brighter with a small act of kindness or a compliment. Doing something positive can help you feel better.
  • Avoid excessive news and social media that increase your stress and worry.
  • Be careful about alcohol use, substance abuse, and long-term anti-anxiety medications. Prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines have increased by 30 percent since the start of the pandemic. For short-term use, they are fine, but they can be habit-forming when taken long-term.
  • Seek professional help if needed. Symptoms of depression include lack of energy, trouble sleeping or concentrating, and having little interest in things you normally enjoy. If those feelings persist for more than two weeks, it’s wise to seek help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24/7 for anyone in a suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

Tips for Helping Children

Children also may be experiencing anxiety. Symptoms include irritability, wanting to be held more than usual, or having stomach discomfort or headaches.

Dr. Milam offers these tips for reducing anxiety among children:

  • Encourage children to express how they’re feeling.
  • Reassure them that things will be okay.
  • Maintain routines and keep to everyday schedules, such as eating and going to bed at the same time.
  • Communicate frequently. Text older children throughout the day, even when they are in the same house, and ask them how they’re doing.

People who need to be cared for by a psychiatrist often face challenges accessing that care due to the nationwide shortage of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, especially in rural areas. One bright spot from the disruption caused by COVID-19 is the dramatic rise in the use of telehealth services, which increases access to medical professionals, including psychiatrists and other mental health providers.

In data published by the Telehealth Impact Physician Survey of almost 1,600 health care professionals, more than 75 percent said that telehealth enabled them to provide quality care for patients with COVID-related mental health and other health issues.

Telepsychiatry Has Opened up a New Way of Providing Care

“With telepsychiatry, care is now patient-centric rather than clinic-centric, and studies indicate that patient satisfaction is high,” says Dr. Milam. He adds that providing patients with easier access to care also has reduced the number of emergency department visits for mental health issues.

At Iris Telehealth, we work to further increase behavioral health accessibility by connecting community mental health centers, community health centers, hospitals, and health systems with telepsychiatry providers. If you’re looking to speak with a psychiatrist via telemedicine, contact your primary care physician or your local health center. If you’re a health organization looking to expand your psychiatric services, reach out to us and we’ll get the conversation started.

5 Ways to Track Vitals Safely and Remotely

Telepsychiatry has expanded rapidly in recent years to meet the demand for psychiatric care. As patients and providers became more familiar and comfortable with the virtual care space during the public health emergency (PHE), they encountered some unanticipated hurdles. One of these hurdles was figuring out how to safely collect patients’ vital signs when they may no longer be required to go to on-site offices and clinics to receive care.

The following five points outline opportunities providers and organizations have to adjust their operations for safely and effectively collecting patients’ vital signs and other data with telehealth and remote patient monitoring.

1. Have individuals acquire their own remote patient monitoring equipment

Patients may acquire home-based remote patient monitoring equipment, such as scales and blood pressure cuffs, for personal or shared use with their families. Like a family thermometer, remote patient monitoring equipment in the home will likely become more common and affordable over time. Increasingly, the equipment has Bluetooth capabilities. Data readings can be linked to mobile devices for personal tracking. The data can then be uploaded into secure patient portals. In these portals, patient data is shared with an individual’s healthcare team.

Many local pharmacies and large retail stores now offer on-site equipment and services for patients needing home equipment to obtain accurate routine vital signs like blood pressure, pulse, and weight. This equipment is becoming increasingly available in community spaces such as schools, workplaces, and local community and public health centers.

As smartwatches and fitness tracking devices continue to increase in popularity, many of these wearables can also be used for telehealth and remote patient monitoring devices, involving minimal restrictions or impact on a person’s lifestyle. From wristbands and armbands to chest straps, patches, and clothing-based monitors, these devices offer the potential for more regular and consistent readings of many vital signs throughout the day and night. Some devices even track heart rhythms as long as the devices are worn and powered up.

2. Purchase and send equipment to patients

While store-bought equipment like digital thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, and diabetes monitoring equipment have become more accurate, reliable, and affordable, they are generally not cheap. While patients with Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSAs) can increasingly use those funds to purchase remote patient monitoring equipment, some clinics have found grants to support purchasing and mailing remote patient monitoring equipment for patients to use at home.

This option increases the accessibility and affordability of the equipment for patients, particularly those who the pandemic and inflation have financially impacted.. Such equipment may require ongoing updates, upgrades, or servicing to maintain accurate readings, so it is important for patients and their healthcare teams to understand and comply with all the terms of use of any equipment used for remote patient monitoring purposes.

3. Extend times between patients for in-office vitals

In locations where clinic offices are open and staffed, before and after normal office hours, patients can have their vitals taken in the office on a “drop-in” or “drive-by” basis. Patients should ask their healthcare providers if these options are available at their local clinic, and discuss the frequency and type of services that would best meet their patient’s healthcare needs and goals.

4. Utilize information from other providers

Coordinating patient care with other providers at different healthcare sites can be challenging. Still, increasingly Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and EHR-based patient portals can promote effective and HIPAA-compliant sharing of important health information such as routine vital signs, glucose monitoring, and other important patient health data.

Suppose patients are seeing different providers or specialists in other locations. In that case, even if those visits are conducted remotely, the patient should ask the clinic staff how their vital signs, and other health information, can be safely shared with their other healthcare providers. Sometimes this request is as simple as signing a Release of Information to allow secure data sharing between providers.

5. Adjust requirements and expectations for vital signs

In the past, it has been reasonable to expect vital sign checks every visit for every patient, especially for patients seeking care for physical health issues. As hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers and their staff continue to adjust their workflows to include remote patient monitoring, telehealth, and “hospital-at-home” models, expectations for patients and providers also need to evolve.

Providers should carefully consider which patients it is medically necessary to obtain vitals from and at what frequency. This consideration is critical since getting this information from every patient on every visit is much more challenging in a telehealth setting.

Empowering patients to be informed and involved in their ongoing healthcare decision-making and workflows, including vitals management, is critical to meeting the demands of patients, providers, and healthcare organizations.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can incorporate telehealth and remote patient monitoring into your behavioral health approach, contact us today. We’d love to chat through your options and help you determine the best steps forward in achieving the best patient care possible.

What Is The Best Telemedicine Company For Behavioral Health

If you’re a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner, you might recently have started looking for work in telemedicine, a growing industry in the world of mental health and medicine.

But how exactly do you decide which telemedicine company is best for you? In this article, we’ll highlight the most important features to look for when searching for a job in behavioral health telemedicine.

Key Features When Choosing Your Telemedicine Company

Telemedicine is a way of providing specific health care services using technology, such as videoconferencing. Telepsychiatry is a type of telemedicine that involves services ranging from psychiatric evaluations, therapy (both individual and group), patient education, and medication management. Essentially, a telepsychiatry session is identical to that of a conventional in-person interview – Doctors work with patients to identify issues, develop a treatment plan, and can prescribe medication when necessary, all through videoconferencing.

The best telemedicine company to work for in mental/behavioral health will:

Provide 24/7 On-Call Services

Your telemedicine company should offer care to an organization’s clients both during scheduled times in the outpatient setting and as needed in a hospital setting, giving you more flexibility to work the hours that are most conducive to your lifestyle. It also enables patients to receive the care they need, when they need it.

Be Psychiatrist-Owned and Operated

The best telemedicine company should have an intimate, expert understanding of clinical practice. This can largely be accomplished when the company is owned and operated by licensed psychiatrists who are familiar with the optimal workflows for patient care and understand how to advocate for your needs as an employee.

Incorporate Work, Life, Balance

Achieving that perfect balance between your work and other aspects of your life should be easy when working for the best telepsychiatry company – You should be able to live life on your terms, rather than have your life be dictated by a rigid schedule.

Utilize HIPAA Compliant Technology

Top-tier telepsychiatrist providers should consult with their organizations to set up HIPAA-compliant technology. Alternatively, they should integrate with any pre-existing technology an organization has in place. And perhaps most importantly, technicians should always be available if you need troubleshooting advice while working with a patient.

Provide Paid Time Off and Benefits

Receiving paid time off and benefits are important at any job – and telepsychiatry is no exception. At Iris Telehealth, we provide five weeks of paid vacation (including holidays). You can also enroll in health benefits, life insurance, and a 401k.

Offers Extra Perks

Because who doesn’t love getting some added perks with their job? The best telemedicine company for behavioral health should provide you with support and resources ranging from equipment, 24/7 tech support, office expense reimbursement, CME credit and malpractice insurance.

Stays Up To Date On Policies

Each state has its own rules, regulations, and restrictions to providing care through telehealth. Your telepsychiatry company should stay up-to-date on all these policies and advise you on compliance with all federal and state rules on telemedicine.

Improve Patient Outcomes

One of the most important features of a telemedicine company for behavioral health is that they improve patient outcomes by optimizing technology for patient experience, provider ease, and reliable administrative workflows.