Too often, patients with behavioral health or substance abuse issues have no choice but to head to the Emergency Department (ED). Once there, they can wait for hours, days, and sometimes weeks before a bed is available. Commonly known as “ED boarding,” it’s a situation the pandemic only made worse.
At the end of June, the Department of Insurance, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Mental Health in Massachusetts collectively submitted an updated protocol regarding the boarding of psychiatric patients.
This bulletin was issued to state insurance carriers, EDs and their evaluation teams, and inpatient psychiatric providers in an effort to emphasize the importance of Expedited Psychiatric Inpatient Admission (EPIA).
As state...
