IPC providing flexible, end-to-end behavioral health care solutions through APS partnership

Many provider organizations are struggling today to sustain comprehensive, cost-effective mental health and substance use care amid a dramatic rise in behavioral health issues unleashed by the pandemic.

Locum tenens and telepsychiatry options are available, but they’re expensive and locum contracts typically are for short duration only. Now, a new IPC partnership means APS members in Missouri and Kansas have an opportunity to provide patients with comprehensive, high-quality behavioral health care while reducing cost and staff burden.

“Due to the pandemic, hospitals are seeing increased demand for behavioral health services,” said Dennis George, CEO of APS. “Many of these patients present in the emergency room and staff is often ill-equipped to provide the level of care required. We’re excited that IPC clinicians can augment hard-pressed hospital staff to provide a full spectrum of cost-effective behavioral healthcare services.”

A Cost-Effective Approach
Integrated Psychiatric Consultants (IPC) is a 20-year-old, physician-owned practice based in Overland Park, KS. We partner with hospitals and clinics of all sizes to help boost patient access to quality, affordable behavioral healthcare. Through both in-person care and telehealth platforms, IPC’s clinicians can address a full range of behavioral health needs at costs that are typically much less than those charged by locum tenens providers.

IPC will help establish a financially sustainable behavioral health solution that allows you to increase patient capacity, grow your clinical team, reduce patient load and wait times, improve outcomes and maintain compliance and certifications.

And unlike many traditional staffing companies, IPC employs its behavioral health providers, then contracts with you through a single agreement. That means you’ll save time and money by eliminating the need to recruit, interview and hire.

It also means IPC is responsible for all administrative functions, including assisting the physician with credentialing for a faster onboarding process, managing payroll, ensuring timely and accurate documentation, and maintaining a high retention rate of providers. At the same time, facilities have the opportunity to be involved with the provider onboarding to help ensure a good fit.

Unmatched Flexibility
IPC’s board-certified psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, physician assistants and licensed therapists seamlessly integrate with your organization to provide care for general adult, child, adolescent and geriatric populations. They can also support substance use disorders.

Contracts typically run from one-to-three years. Specific roles that can be fulfilled include consultation-liaison, leadership, full-time, part-time, year-round on-call coverage and more. Services are provided to hospitals, clinics and psychiatric facilities on an inpatient or outpatient basis and reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid and commercial payers.

For hospitals, IPC clinicians take the pressure off already-overworked emergency
department staff by providing evidence-based stabilization and care. This helps patients achieve optimal outcomes and reduces the burden on internal staff. IPC also is able to provide consult liaison services for your inpatient medical units.

Thanks to our relationships with inpatient behavioral health providers in Kansas and Missouri, IPC will help identify openings at longer-term facilities to relieve hospital overcrowding. Additionally, IPC can work with you to improve and streamline current behavioral healthcare processes to help ensure the most efficient model of care possible.

Ryan Speier, IPC’s chief operating officer and a former behavioral health hospital administrator, said the company looks forward to helping hospitals reduce costs associated with behavioral health while expanding access and improving outcomes for patients.

“Behavioral health demand has never been greater,” he said. “That’s why it’s important for providers to strengthen their capabilities in ways that are financially sustainable. We look forward to working with facilities in Kansas and Missouri to control costs and expand care.”

Learn More
To find out more about the many ways IPC can augment and strengthen your behavioral health capabilities, visit our website or contact Ryan Speier, IPC Chief Operating Officer, at [email protected] or 913-961-5498.