News

Happy New Year from Sites Professionals! We are so very grateful for you, and for the community of mental health service providers of which we are a part. It means so much to us to be able to serve our community and we wish to thank our clients, partners, psychiatrists and support staff with whom we interact every day.

Warmly,

Nancy & Jeff

The current hiring crunch is real, and we understand it has had a disproportionate impact on community mental health service providers, making it difficult to deliver timely services to those in greatest need. We also know that securing psychiatrists has been a long-standing challenge.

At Sites Professionals, our mission from the beginning has been to recruit and place psychiatrists in community mental health to increase access to psychiatric care for underserved populations. We have child and adolescent psychiatrists available and ready to work in your agency. They are licensed in California and have community mental health experience. Sites Professionals provides credentialing, tech support, and much more at no cost to you. Connect with us today.

Effective as of January 1, 2022, health care practitioners submitting prescriptions to pharmacies must do so electronically. Passed into law in 2018, assembly bill #2789 also has provisions for pharmacies handling prescriptions, with penalties for noncompliance including referral to state licensing boards for sanction. The E-Prescribing rules apply for controlled and non-controlled substances. There are a number of exemptions. We would encourage you to read the bill and seek assistance if you have specific questions:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=20...

The good news is that many Electronic Health Records systems have built-in or... read more

Beginning July 1, 2021*, providers who service the Medi-Cal population will be required to use the PAVE system when submitting new applications or when making certain changes to an existing application (eg. adding a location). For various reasons, even when not creating or changing a Medi-Cal Provider application, all of the provider types listed below should enroll in the PAVE portal before this date.

Background and Acronyms

PAVE stands for Provider Application and Validation for Enrollment system. PAVE is administered by the Provider Enrollment Division (PED) of the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Providers billing Medi-Cal for services must have an approved application with PED. PAVE replaces the paper... read more

Thanks to the rapid adoption of telepsychiatry, as required in response to the pandemic, this year has seen an increase in opportunities for psychiatrists, patients, and mental health service agencies. The use of telepsychiatry has freed psychiatric services from the constraints of geography. The distance between patients and the best-matched psychiatrist is no longer a barrier to providing excellent services. With a valid medical license to practice in California, a psychiatrist has many new opportunities to practice in the places with greatest need. Having these choices means that finding a better match becomes more likely. A better match benefits patients and mental health service agencies alike. Telepsychiatry provides agencies the flexibility to match psychiatrists by their skills... read more

My phone rings at 12:35 PM, every day Monday through Friday. It has since about 2010, when I began building my first business. I was based in Los Angeles, I had three partners in North Carolina, and we supervised development teams in Ukraine, Utah and Venezuela. I worked from home in a 1960’s-era two bedroom apartment I shared with my wife.

At first I was allowed the guest room as an office but then something incredible happened. In the midst of all the stress and uncertainty of having quit my job to found a startup - not paying myself, fretting constantly about my ability to provide for the two of us - we had twins.

I lost my office and about 4 months worth of sleep. Already in an agitated state, I started to forget lunch. Using the phone alarm as a reminder to eat... read more

March 24, 2020

Dear Members of the Mental Health Services Community,

We remain open and operational during the "Safer at Home" response to the COVID19 outbreak. We are, like many of you, conducting meetings via video and phone. The demand for psychiatric services has not diminished among those in need, and we are doing everything we can to help you meet it. Whether it's finding part time or full time psychiatric coverage, implementing telemedicine, or navigating the challenges of billing and administrative hurdles - we have experience that may be of use to you and your patients.

Thank you for all that you do.

Jeff & Nancy

We had a wonderful time last Saturday at the Southern California Psychiatric Society Career Fair. Nancy and I enjoyed meeting everyone! -Jeff

We posted a new video about our processes on the Agencies Page, check it out and let us know what you think.

We've also updated our Positions Available with the latest job openings for psychiatrists. Don't see what you're looking for? Please call us for the latest available positions!

Cheers!

Scarcity has been in the news lately. It is something with which most in the field of mental health are entirely familiar.

Our community faces a variety of serious challenges to the health and well-being of its citizens. Last week we learned that the homeless population in Los Angeles County grew by 12%, despite the spending of voter-approved hundreds of millions of dollars in 2018. In the same week LAUSD’s measure EE failed at the ballot. The measure would have provided desperately needed funding to local schools, but may have exacerbated the county’s housing-affordability and homelessness crisis by taxing living space. In other words, two crisis pitted against one another in competition for resources.

Like access to healthcare, access to secure housing and a quality... read more

Psychiatrists: Sites Professionals has several new positions available, ranging from 3 days per week to twice a month. Not only do we match you with a position that meets your interests and availability, we will help you navigate documentation and technology with trainings and tech support. We also provide occurrence-based malpractice insurance and take care of credentialing. More information on our "Jobs" tab.

For psychiatrists, working in community mental health is a convenient and meaningful experience. Sites Professionals makes it easy. The need for qualified psychiatric coverage in community mental health is great. Their clients are deserving and in need, yet are dramatically underserved due to social and economic factors.

For practitioners, the benefits of providing psychiatric care to this population include a longer duration of care than is found in private and hospital settings; and a support team to help with clinical and administrative tasks. Additionally, Sites Professionals can locate placements for as little as 4 hours a week up to full time, making it possible to fit into any schedule. We provide occurrence-based malpractice insurance, many placements can be conducted... read more

We (Nancy and I) have experienced the workings of mental health services in California from a number of angles. We have seen it from the perspective of administrators, as a practitioner (Nancy), and as vendor/consultants via Sites Professionals. Our work with Sites Professionals has only broadened our understanding of the complexities of providing good care to clients.

By interfacing with agencies, practitioners, Department of Mental Health administrators, and many others in the local mental health ecosystem we have gained a new perspective on all of the layers of services from top-level funding sources (and their objectives) down to the outcomes of individual clients. In this full-stack of care, there are many different approaches. Especially at the provider level there are... read more

The Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, also known as CURES 2.0, comes from California’s Health and Safety Code Section 11165.1.

Effective Oct 2, 2018, all doctors, prescribing schedule II, III and IV to patients for the first time must consult the CURES system no earlier than 24 hours before prescribing (or the previous business day). They are also required to check the CURES system at least once every 4 months thereafter if the controlled substance remains part of the treatment plan of the patient.

Doctors, if you don’t already have a login, you can register at... read more