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Getting An Appointment On Time

Community Care works hard to make sure that you can get a timely appointment with your provider for mental health and substance use problems. 

Community Care has standards for how quickly you should get an appointment. 

• Within seven calendar days for routine behavioral health needs.
• Within 24 hours for urgent needs.
• Within one hour for an emergency that is not life threatening.
• Right away for a life threatening emergency.

In 2006, we looked at the urgent and emergency phone calls that came into Community Care.  For these calls, HealthChoices providers met the standard for urgent and emergency appointments all of the time.  We also look at how often members get a routine appointment within seven days. 

Community Care is always working to improve access.  Some things we have done to make sure members get appointments on time are:

• Our Care Managers are always available to help you get an appointment.  They can call providers for you if you are having trouble getting an appointment.
• We send our access standards to both members and providers every year.
• We also have articles including the access standards on our website.

If you have any problems getting an appointment soon enough to meet your needs, please call the toll free number for your county.   

We also want to make sure that you have a quick response when you call Community Care.  We measure how quickly we answer the phone and if members are hanging up before their call is answered.  In 2006, Community Care met our goal for both of these.  However, we always try to be better when answering the phones.  Please let us know if you ever have a problem getting your phone calls answered.

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