Healthcare Professional Education and Training

The OptumHealth™ Education website provides access to on-demand webcasts, information on upcoming conferences and registration for other educational programs.

• Go to OptumHealth Education
• Featured program: Advancing Health Equity Education Series
  

Initial Health Assessment

Per California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Policy Letter 08-003, the Initial Health Assessment (IHA) is a comprehensive assessment that is completed during the member’s initial encounter(s) with a select or assigned primary care physician (PCP), appropriate medical specialist, or non-physician medical provider (Nurse Practitioner, Certified Nurse Midwives, Physician Assistants and Primary Care Providers in training) and must be documented in the member’s medical record.

The IHA enables the members PCP to assess and manage the acute, chronic and preventive health needs of the member. The IHA must be completed and documented in medical record within 120 calendar days of the member’s enrollment to UnitedHealthcare Community Plan.

• Initial Health Assessment Care Provider Training

If you have questions, please email the Quality Department at UHCCSCAQualityDepartment_DL@ds.uhc.com.

Screening Requirements for Autism Spectrum Disorder

• Per California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Policy Letter 18-006, federal law requires care providers to screen children younger than 21 who are enrolled in Medi-Cal for autism spectrum disorder. This requirement is part of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) guidelines.
• When screening children for autism spectrum disorder, we recommend administering the Ages and Stages Autism Screening Questionnaire – Third Edition (ASQ®-3). You can request a hard copy of the ASQ-3 by emailing uhccscaqualitydepartment_dl@ds.uhc.com. 

• Screening Requirements for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Timely Access to Care Standards

Care Provider Instructions

• Review the Timely Access to Care Standards and share them with your staff.

Timely Access to Care Standards

• The California Department of Managed Health Care requires that appointment requests are completed within specific timeframes. Following these standards guarantees that patients have timely access to care.

Annual Monitoring

• We want to make sure our care providers are following the timely access to care standards. Each year, we ask certain care providers to complete a Patient Access and Availability Study. UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California closely monitors grievance reports to identify access and availability issues. Issues will be tracked and, if a trend is identified, it may result in an Improvement Action Plan.