Provider Scorecard

The Department of Mental Health Provider Scorecard is a tool designed to help users of public mental health services in the District of Columbia select a provider that best meets their needs. Through a rigorous application process, the Department of Mental Health certifies community based providers to deliver mental health services for children, youth and adults.  As part of its ongoing oversight to ensure high quality services, the Department developed the Provider Scorecard to rate providers on service delivery. The Provider Scorecard rates the quality of service delivery in assessment, treatment planning, and coordination of care. It also examines financial compliance with federal and local regulations and laws.

To be included, a provider must demonstrate paid claims for a minimum of 15 consumers for services delivered during all four quarters of the review period. As such, every certified community provider may not be included in each review period.

Sampling Methodology

The Provider Scorecard [PDF] comprises two sections—a Quality section divided into children and adult sub-sections as appropriate and a Financial section. Data for the Quality sections of the Provider Scorecard is extracted from the annual quality reviews conducted by the Department’s Office of Accountability. These reviews consist of site visits and chart abstractions made at each community provider. The samples for these reviews are randomly chosen. The numbers of reviews conform to industry sampling practice based on the size of the population seen by a provider. For 1-300 clients, 15 charts are reviewed; for 301-1,000 clients, 20 charts are reviewed, and for providers with more than 1,000 clients, 25 charts are reviewed.

The Financial section includes the results of the Department’s claims audit process and monitoring of provider compliance with financial regulations.

Review Period

The review period for the Provider Scorecard is different for each section of the tool, but generally is based on the latest complete year-long period available for the domain under review.

The Quality Reviews conducted in 2011 cover the period April 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011. For more information about the Provider Scorecard or the Technical Specification Manual [PDF], please contact the Office of Accountability at (202) 673-2292.