Issue Process Explanation
This section describes how to determine if an issue is statewide and operational in nature, how it should be reported to the Behavioral Health Operations Committee and the process for resolution.
Defining Statewide Operational Issues
A statewide operational issue is one that is affecting or will affect a provider’s or board’s ability to effectively manage their business practices within the behavioral health publicly funded system and that will impact the majority of providers and boards. Statewide operational issues may involve addressing the application of existing policy as it affects business operations, but they do not include setting or changing policy. Statewide operational issues are not questions, complaints, residency disputes or specific client, board or provider disputes.
Statewide operational issues should only be reported after the following steps (as appropriate) have been taken without successful resolution of an issue:
- The organization raising the issue has attempted to resolve the issue internally but has not been successful in doing so.
- The organization raising the issue has attempted to gather statistics to objectively measure the impact and magnitude of the issue.
- The organization has gathered related facts and information pertaining to the issue via documentation available on the Web, from trade associations and/or other available state, board or provider resources.
- If it is a Multi-Agency Community Services Information System (MACSIS) technical issue, the organization has attempted to gather information via the MACSIS Support Desk.
Submitting an Issue
To report an issue, state, board or provider representatives must complete an operational issues form, which is available in Microsoft Word format for submission via email or can be printed in PDF format and faxed. Completed forms should be submitted to the State Operations Committee support staff, Barbara Johnson, at Barbara.Johnson@mh.ohio.gov or faxed to 614-752-9453.
Often, an issue raised by a provider software vendor requires input and explanation by the provider to be resolved successfully. For this reasons, issues will not be accepted directly from a provider software vendor. It is recommended that the vendor contact their provider(s) to initiate this process. Once received, the issue will be assigned a number and logged into a central database. Within two business days, the sender will receive an acknowledgement that the issue was recorded.
Issue Resolution Process (three scenarios)
1. New Statewide Operational Issue
If the sender indicated he or she was a member of a trade association on the operational issues form, a copy of the issue will be forwarded to the appropriate representative of the association for review prior to a committee meeting.
Committee members will meet on a monthly basis to review issues, agree upon a priority and discuss recommendations for resolution. Priorities will be set based on majority opinion. Recommendations for resolution may involve creating a work team of experts to further evaluate issues or route an issue through an existing committee for input.
Each issue can take varying lengths of time to resolve depending on the complexity and nature of the issue. It is important to note that the Operations Committee only convenes on a monthly basis as long as there are issues to consider.
2. Issue Already Reported or Previously Closed
If the issue already exists in the central issues database and/or was previously discussed and resolved, the sender will be notified of the status or resolution. A duplicate issue number will not be assigned.
3. Issue Requires More Information
If the issue requires more information to successfully understand and resolve, the sender will be asked to provide the additional information. If the requested additional information is not provided within 30 days, the issue will be closed.
Obtaining or Escalating Issue Status
Senders can check on issue status by monitoring the Operations Committee Open Issues List and/or the Operations Committee Closed Issues List.
Senders should escalate the status of an issue through their respective trade associations. If the sender is not a member of a trade association, he or she can request to escalate the status of an issue via email with the State Operations Committee support staff, Barbara Johnson, at Barbara.Johnson@mh.ohio.gov.