Bay Area Childrens Association

2012 Update

ttarshis — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:37:34 +0000

Greetings to everyone,
It has been a long time since I have posted an update and I apologize for that. This is a busy season for myself, teaching two classes at Stanford and being the head coach for my sons Little League Team. BACA will be coming up on its Five-Year anniversary this summer. We have come a long way since we began in a small office in Cupertino. We continue to work towards our mission of providing excellent, current, evidence-based treatments for all children and families. We continue to work to accept new insurances, and will soon be adding Value Options to our in-network list. We are trying to work with Magellan/Blue Shield and United Behavioral Health, but the process is slow. We also are trying to expand our Medi-Cal contract, but this is also a slow process.

We have added new providers, and continue to work to provide services as our primary goal. We recognize that we do not have a perfect system for giving out our appointments. This is due to unprecedented demand for services. It is not practical to keep a wait list with over 200 names on it. We had over 150 requests for appointments in March, but only had 13 openings (which was actually higher than usual due to our new Child Psychiatrist Smita Thakkar coming on-board). We are going to move to a larger space by the end of the year, and plan to triple services provided including adding an intensive outpatient after school program if all goes well. The struggle we face is in cash reserves Grant efforts have been unsuccessful for the past year, and because we are a non-profit we are not eligible for small-business loans that can help procure new space. We do not pursue donations more than nominal amounts from our clients for ethical reasons. We have procured a small line of credit, but in order for the agency to continue to expand we will need to increase our reserves through grants, fundraising or loans. I hope to devote more time to these efforts this summer. If you believe in our mission, have been trying to get an appointment unsuccessfully, or wish to help children suffering from mental health issues, and know of any philanthropic programs in the Silicon Valley or elsewhere that may be able to help us with General Operating Expenses or donated office space, this would greatly help the agency.

In the meantime, I remain available for all families to give advice and work hard to answer e-mails promptly. Please contact me at anytime. Best wishes to all, Tom

New Provider

ttarshis — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:00:41 +0000

We are pleased to announce that Eliza Warde, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Sunshine Wu Fisher, Licensed Clinical Social Worker has joined the agency. Eliza and Sunshine will provide evidence-based therapy treatments for children, couples and families at BACA.

Not enough hours in the day

ttarshis — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:31:29 +0000

Recently returned from a conference in NYC. These can be helpful but then there is a lot of work to do upon return. Dr. Fan is back from maternity leave and we are excited to have her back at BACA. Our waiting list has once again become extensive. I have spent months working on grants and trying to procure funding to no avail. The current issue is that to expand our services we need money up front for rent and salary costs, due to the delay in billing reimbursements. Despite good credit, the agency does not generate enough revenue on a monthly basis to allow for a loan – we are operating pretty much “paycheck to paycheck”. I will be seeking volunteers to help with financial and business planning. Currently, we are working to make the office more efficient and are updating our waiting room area to hopefully feel less cluttered.
Cheers! Tom

Updates..

ttarshis — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 01:07:37 +0000

BACA was interviewed and a nice article came out today in the local Cupertino Courier. Click here to read:

We are happy to announce that all of our providers are now active with Anthem Blue Cross and Aetna. We are striving to negotiate with ALL insurance companies, to increase access to services for those who need them. We are looking to hire new providers over the coming months to make full use of our office space. We will specifically look to hire MFT’s with an interest in doing cognitive-behavioral therapy, who enjoy working with parents and families.

With the increase size of the office, we are now able to see those in need in a very short time frame. We know that this will change as school begins and kids experience more stress. BACA remains committed to our long-term goal of providing comprehensive, integrated treatment in one location to decrease the fragmentation of the mental health care system. If you believe in our mission, please spread the word about our agency.

A bientot! Thomas

You Can Help BACA!

ttarshis — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:20:49 +0000

Dear Friend of BACA,
If you love our work then tell the world! You have an exciting
opportunity to help make even more of a difference in our
community. GreatNonprofits – a site like Amazon reviews or
TripAdvisor – is conducting a campaign to identify the top-
rated health nonprofits in the country.
Won’t you help us participate in the campaign by posting a
review of your experience with us? All reviews will be visible
to potential donors and volunteers. It’s easy and only takes 3
minutes!
Go to:
www.greatnonprofits.org/reviews/bay-area-childrens-association
With your help, we can gain greater visibility in our
community.
Thank you,
Thomas Tarshis M.D., M.P.H.
Medical Director

Expansion moving forward

ttarshis — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:05:58 +0000

BACA has now procured two more offices, has hired our 4th Child Psychiatrist (to start this summer) and may have more Stanford Child Psychiatry Fellows practicing at our agency. In addition, we will begin to help train MFT interns (Master’s level therapists doing their internships) in the coming months. This will mean increased access to care for families in the Bay Area. In addition, some progress has been made with insurance acceptance, which will also help provide much needed in-network mental health care for children and families. Currently, our waiting list is still quite long, but we will have many openings beginning in June. As we work towards the goal of “curing” all of our patients, this allows us to keep taking new cases. We truly strive to have all patients cured in 6 months. Of course, this is not always the case, and people will never be “forced out” of treatment. Setting goals for therapy and mental health treatment, and sticking to the latest scientific evidence regarding treatment, helps to speed our patients along the path to recovery.

We are also happy to report that we received our first grant! We hope this is the first step in working towards procuring more funding to increase services for all members of our community.

More on Insurance….

ttarshis — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:48:47 +0000

Many times, families ask us what their co-pay will be for visits. This is a tricky question. Although we try to help people with this question, the reality is that we never know what your co-pay or deductible is until we submit the bill to the insurance company and get reimbursement. It is not uncommon that we ask an insurance what the co-pay is, only to find that we have been given erroneous information. For this reason, we send a detailed e-mail to all new patients, telling you to call your insurance company to ask these questions. Patients are responsible for payment as signed on the registration form. If we call the insurance company and they tell us the co-pay is $20 per visit but then when we submit the bill, they only cover 50% of the visit, you are still responsible for what the insurance company does not pay. It is impossible for a small non-profit agency to guarantee what the co-pay is before the visit occurs. We understand that this can be frustrating for some people and apologize for this, but try to make it clear that you need to confirm your co-pays and deductibles yourself before the visits occur. Unfortunately, mental health care is not always covered as well as medical care appointments.

The Great Insurance Debate

ttarshis — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:27:52 +0000

Many child psychiatrists do not take insurance. At BACA, as a non-profit agency, we have a mission to provide access to care to all individuals who need help. As such, we are working to accept all insurance plans. Unfortunately, there are many struggles associated with accepting insurance (which is the reason why so many mental health providers do not). To begin, we try to integrate care at our agency – this means that we provide both therapy and pharmacotherapy (prescribing medications) services at our agency. Mental health care is extremely fragmented in our society, which leads to worse outcomes and more difficulties for families. We hope to provide all services relevant for improving mental health functioning (psychotherapy, biological treatments including medications and exercise, occupational therapy, speech therapy and even tutoring!) at our agency one day. The problem, is that many services are not reimbursed at reasonable rates – especially for physicians who wish to deliver therapy services. Several insurance agencies will negotiate reasonable reimbursement rates, but others are less willing. In addition, although electronic billing and other technology has made reimbursement easier, there are continual “errors” by insurance companies that require administrative time to remedy, thus driving up costs. Currently, for out-of-network clients, we give a “superbill” which can be submitted for reimbursement. I am thinking about changing this, so that we actually will submit all billing (whether you are in-network or not) which would make it easier for our families, but more difficult for us. The best thing to do is complain to your insurance company if you have limited mental health treatment options. We sincerely wish to take every insurance available, and now do accept Medi-cal. I am hoping that the new law passed in California regarding being seen in reasonable time if you are an HMO member will help us to negotiate fair contracts.

Why do we require both parents at intake appointments?

ttarshis — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:29:18 +0000

A common question we get at BACA is regarding our policy of requiring both parents to be present for the initial appointment and the wrap-up session (usually 4th appointment). Many times people will tell us that their work schedule precludes one parent from making it to the appointments. Although we recognize that certain jobs may make it difficult for both parents to be present, because of our philosophy of treating all factors that can affect the mental health of children, it is vital to speak with both caregivers. If one parent is resistant to coming in for an appointment, or feels like they cannot contribute much information, it is important for them to realize that this is never the case. The roles of all caregivers are one of the most significant factors affecting children. If one parent is unwilling/unable to participate in the evaluation and treatment process, it lowers our chance for a successful outcome. We are flexible in our hours, staying late once or twice per week, and also are willing to work during lunch hours and occasional Saturdays. Please trust that the best chance for helping your child requires the input and efforts of both parents.

Parent Ed Meeting

ttarshis — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:53:29 +0000

The parent education talk for Palo Alto and Gunn high school went well. Here’s a link to the student newspaper review.