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Preferred Prescriber Program

The Preferred Prescriber program started in Allegheny County in 2004. It was created to make psychiatric evaluations better for our children and young adults who receive Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services, or BHRS.  BHRS, also called Wraparound services, need to be prescribed by a licensed psychologist or physician who has evaluated the child and recommended these services. The Best Practice Evaluation is the report that the psychologist or physician writes to recommend these services.  In the Preferred Prescriber program, Community Care evaluates the prescribers to make sure they provide high quality evaluations. To assess them, Community Care reviews evaluations that the prescriber has completed. Community Care also performs ongoing quality and compliance reviews, and keeps track of the prescribers’ participation in ISPT (interagency service planning team) meetings. Community Care also requires that Preferred Prescribers go to trainings in order to help keep the quality of their evaluations high.

The goals of the program are:

• To make sure that members have high quality Best Practice Evaluations.
• To improve BHRS prescribers’ knowledge and practice in the following areas:

1. Understanding all levels of care for children.
2. Applying Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP) principles to recommendations and service planning.

• The core CASSP principles are to make services: child-centered, family-focused, community-based, multi-system, culturally competent, and least restrictive/least intrusive.

3. Understanding Medical Necessity Criteria for BHRS (what is the most appropriate service that best meets the needs of the consumer and is the least intrusive/least restrictive option).
4. Working with the BHRS team and other child serving systems, including Juvenile Probation, Children, Youth, and Families (CYF), and education systems.
5. Participating in the interagency team meetings for clinical direction and input.

Preferred prescribers are re-evaluated on an ongoing basis to make sure they continue to meet Community Care’s high standards. Preferred Prescribers are given feedback every month about any quality issues or concerns. New applicants are encouraged and are allowed to apply every year to become a Preferred Prescriber. 

Below is the list of Preferred Prescribers for Allegheny County members:

Practitioners

• Sebastian Lo’Nigro, MA through Alliance Health Wraparound, Inc.
• Benjamin Handen, PhD
• Craig Hartmann, PhD
• Dominic Kasony, PhD
• Robert King, MA
• Barbara Madaus, M.Ed.
• Timothy Makatura, PhD
• Daniel Marston, PhD
• David McAnallen, M.Ed.
• Anne Miller, PhD
• Steven Mosovsky, M.Ed.
• Lawrence Newman, PhD
• Walter Sigut, MA
• Norman Sobel, MS
• Lawrence Sutton, PhD

Facilities

• Allegheny Children’s Initiative, Inc.
• FamilyLinks
• Mercy Behavioral Health
• Nisar Health and Human Services, Inc.
• Northwestern Human Services
• Turtle Creek Valley MH/MR
• UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
• The Watson Institute

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