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April 21, 2022

Kentucky Medicaid: Schedule post-discharge appointments after inpatient hospitalization to help improve health outcomes

As you know, for UnitedHealthcare Community Plan members who’ve been hospitalized for a mental illness, scheduling timely post-discharge appointments is vital to the member’s success after they’ve been discharged. These follow-up appointments can help members reacclimate to the community and reduce readmission rates.

Scheduling follow-up appointments for your patients
The Follow-Up After Hospitalization for Mental Illness (FUH) HEDIS® measure assesses the percentage of inpatient discharges for a diagnosis of mental illness among patients ages 6 and older that resulted in follow-up care with a mental health provider within 7 days.

Follow-up appointments can be an outpatient visit, intensive outpatient encounter or partial hospitalization with a mental health practitioner. Appointments with primary care physicians, drug and alcohol counselors and non-licensed clinicians don’t count towards the FUH measure.

Appointment types that count for the FUH measure

  • Medication management
  • Partial hospitalization programs (PHP) and intensive outpatient programs (IOP) for mental health or outpatient
  • Group therapy, family therapy, individual therapy
  • Home health services with a mental health provider
  • Telehealth/virtual visits

Appointment types that do not count for the FUH measure

  • Appointments with a primary care physician (PCP)
  • Appointment for substance use treatment
  • Pastoral counseling
  • School counseling

Questions?
Contact your designated UnitedHealthcare Care Advocate or Senior Quality Analyst Charles Nails at charles_m_nails@uhc.com.

HEDIS® is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
PCA-1-22-00821-C&S-LTR