Purpose
This protocol is to inform counties about CalMHSA’s recommendations for the 2025 submission of the TADT.
Timeliness of Guidance
We wanted to apologize for any delays in communication you may feel. We have had outstanding questions with DHCS regarding the TADT and, to date, have not yet received any feedback. Due to the upcoming submission deadline of 7/1/25, we’ve decided to put out guidance without this clarification. If we receive any feedback from DHCS, we will update this protocol.
Summary of 2025 TADT Changes
There were very few changes made from the 2024 TADT to the 2025 TADT. We have outlined the changes below and provided recommendations for each.
- SMHS – No changes to either Psychiatric or Non-Psychiatric reporting requirements
- DMC-ODS – One change to the Outpatient reporting requirements
- DMC-State Plan – Many changes to align DMC-SP to DMC-ODS requirements
DMC-ODS Outpatient
Previously, the DMC Outpatient reporting field “Appointment Type” had 3 options. For 2025, one of these options (“Withdrawal Management”) was separated out as a distinct question. We will be adding this field to the DMC Outpatient timeliness record document in SmartCare.
Recommendation for 2025 submission:
Use the current CalMHSA TADT Report as-is to ensure timely submission of the TADT. There is some manual manipulation you’ll need to do. See the steps below.
- Copy CalMHSA columns B-D into DHCS columns B-D.
- Copy CalMHSA columns E-T into DHCS columns F-U. Make sure to leave DHCS column E (“Withdrawal Management”) blank.
- Filter DHCS column D (“Appointment Type”) to find any records that are “03”. Those indicate that “Withdrawal Management” was the appointment type selected by the user.
- Enter “01” into DHCS column E (“Withdrawal Management”) for all the records that have “03” in DHCS column D (“Appointment Type”). This effectively moves the “Withdrawal Management” responses into their own column.
- Delete the value “03” from all the records in DHCS column D, so that those records that previously had “03” are now blank.
- You’ll need to go back through the records where “03” was originally indicated as the appointment type to determine whether the new appointment type should be “01” for outpatient or “02” for residential.
- You’ll need to go back through the records where “03” was not selected as the appointment type to determine if withdrawal management services were provided. Enter “01” for “yes” and “02” for “no”.
DMC-State Plan (Outpatient and Opioid)
Previously, DMC-State Plan counties had their timeliness record reporting dictated from BHIN 22-070. Per feedback from our clinical team, CalMHSA deployed a DMC-State Plan timeliness record document on 4/14/25.
The new BHIN 25-013 brings DMC-State Plan timeliness record tracking into alignment with DMC-ODS requirements. There is one difference between SP and ODS and that is the tracking of “Referred to Out-of-Network Provider”.
Because of this shift, we will be merging the DMC-ODS and DMC-SP documents in SmartCare. This includes renaming the DMC-ODS timeliness documents to be more encompassing (removing “ODS”) and deactivating the DMC State Plan documents. Please alert your staff about this change. We will be renaming the DMC-ODS documents on 7/1/25. We want to provide more time for staff to finalize the State Plan documents, so we will be deactivating these documents on 8/1/25.
Specific changes and timelines:
- DMC-ODS Outpatient Timeliness Record – Will be renamed to “DMC Outpatient Timeliness Record” on 7/1/25
- DMC-ODS Opioid Timeliness Record – Will be renamed to “DMC Opioid Timeliness Record” on 7/1/25
- DMC State Outpatient Timeliness Record – Will be deactivated on 8/1/25
- DMC State Narcotic Tx Program Timeliness Record – Will be deactivated on 8/1/25
Recommendation for 2025 submission:
While we were planning on updating the TADT report to include the new State Plan document, this plan is no longer viable, as the requirements for State Plan counties are now aligned with DMC-ODS counties.
Beyond that, CalMHSA deployed the DMC-State Plan timeliness record document on 4/14/25, which is outside of the reporting period for the 2025 TADT submission (reporting period: 7/1/24 – 3/31/25) [BHIN 25-013]. This means that during the reporting period, State Plan counties were either tracking timeliness outside of SmartCare or using the DMC-ODS timeliness record documents in SmartCare.
If your county was using the DMC-ODS timeliness record documents, use the current CalMHSA TADT Report as-is to ensure timely submission of the TADT. There is some manual manipulation you’ll need to do. See the steps below.
- Export the CalMHSA TADT Report to Excel.
- Delete the column labeled “Referred to an Out-of-Network Provider”, as this is not required for State Plan counties. This is true for both the Outpatient and Opioid tabs.
- Copy the report data into the appropriate DHCS TADT workbook tab.
Next Steps
CalMHSA will be working on making changes to the timeliness record documents. However, we are doing this with direct input from counties. Currently, our plans include the following changes:
- Create new sections on all documents to make each section clearer
- Add new “Withdrawal Management” question to DMC Outpatient document and remove “Withdrawal Management” as an option for “Appointment Type”
- Add “Mobile Crisis Unit” to the global code for Referral
- Make the global code for Referral and Appointment Type available for counties to edit, with training on how to map custom entries to a standard TADT value (e.g. mapping “Eureka High School” to “05 – School”).
- Add timeliness calculations and standards to the user interface (visible to the users)
- Change timeliness calculations to match DHCS holidays rather than county holidays, per DHCS guidance
- Add a general “comments” field/section
We are still waiting for feedback from DHCS, but will start moving forward with these changes. For items where we are unclear on whether something is required or conditionally required, we will not add validations at this point and will ensure the field is always available for users to complete.
County Holidays
The County Holidays (Administration) screen will be deactivated. The creation of this screen was meant to allow counties to enter their county holidays so that the timeliness formulas would be using the appropriate county business days.
Since this rollout, we have learned that DHCS requires counties to use DHCS holidays rather that the holidays that the county observes for these calculations. Counties will no longer need to enter their own holidays and CalMHSA wants to ensure that only the DHCS holidays are used for timeliness calculations. CalMHSA will therefore deactivate the County Holidays (Administration) screen on 7/1/25 and reset all dates to match the DHCS holiday calendar.
- Last Updated: June 11, 2025