October 15, 2026
Following are this week’s updates. If you have questions, please contact [email protected].
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QA Refresh for ISL Testing: Request by Oct. 22
Counties that have not yet requested a refresh of QA environments are asked to do so as soon as possible. ISL testing is planned to begin next week, and testing in a QA environment that has not been refreshed will not be accurate.
Org Hierarchy 2.0: Feedback Requested by Oct. 22
CalMHSA developed a new version of the Org Hierarchy based on county feedback. The report will help counties track service time of clinical county staff, as well as vacancies. Counties are asked to review the proposed list of roles below, most of which align with the DHCS billing manuals, and share whether anything is missing or should be changed. Feedback can be emailed to Leah Hanzlicek at [email protected] by Oct. 22.
Additional changes will allow counties to complete their initial hierarchy in a spreadsheet outside SmartCare, with CalMHSA supporting the initial ingestion and setup. Counties that used version 1.0 will have their existing Org Hierarchy transferred to version 2.0 when it goes live in production. The interface was also updated to improve visualization and make ongoing management more user-friendly. CalMHSA will publish a full guide to the functionality, and county testing will be available shortly.
Proposed Roles for Org Hierarchy 2.0
- Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor
- Clinical Nurse Specialist
- Clinical Trainee
- Community Health Worker
- Deputy Director
- Director
- LCSW
- Licensed Psychiatric Technician
- LMFT/LPCC
- LVN
- Manager
- Medical Assistant
- Medical Director
- Medical Student in Clerkship
- Mental Health Rehab Specialist
- Nurse Practitioner
- Occupational Therapist
- Other Qualified Provider
- Peer Specialist/Peer Support Specialist
- Pharmacist
- Physician
- Physician Assistant
- Psychologist
- RN
- Supervisor
Reminder: SmartCare Notification Replaced by SMARTnotify; Choose an Option by Oct. 23
Streamline is planning to discontinue SmartCare Notification, its text and voice appointment reminder feature, and replace it with SMARTnotify, powered by IntelliChart.
Counties currently using SmartCare Notification can choose one of three options:
- Standalone SMARTnotify: Available only to counties with an active SmartCare Notification subscription, with no implementation fee. Pricing will remain the same, except that messages beyond the contracted volume will be billed as overages.
- SMARTportal: Includes SMARTnotify and has its own pricing.
- Discontinue appointment reminders
SMARTnotify messages will be limited to 140 characters, and longer messages will count as multiple messages toward the contracted volume.
Action needed: Counties are asked to contact their account manager with their choice by Oct. 23.
To keep reminders running without a gap, counties must schedule their migration by Dec. 31, though go-live can take place in 2027.
CalMHSA will follow up with each county about its usage estimate and agreement amendment. Counties already contracted for SMARTportal will not be affected.
Production Procedure Rate Refresh Scheduled for Oct. 20-21
CalMHSA will conduct a procedure rate refresh in county production environments Oct. 20-21. Updates will take place over two days, organized by fiscal year:
- FY 2025-26 rates will be refreshed before the start of business on Oct. 20.
- FY 2026-27 rates will be refreshed before start of business on Oct.21.
What’s Included
- The latest DHCS Fee Schedule and Service Table revisions
- Rates for the Brixadi Monthly NDC codes
- Rates for Community Health Work degree for procedures: Education and training for patient self-management – 2-4 Patients (98961), Education and training for patient self-management – 5-8 Patients (98962), Sign Language or Oral Interpretive Services (T1013), and Interactive Complexity (90785)
- A NOMIN procedure rate in for Transportation, Staff time (T2007)
- A fix for the HQ modifier, which was not appended to procedure rates for Group Therapy and Multiple-Family Group Psychotherapy when the billing code was T2021
- A fix for the TG modifier, which was not appended to billing code H2012 for Day Treatment Intensive, Full Day or Day Treatment, Half Day
- Procedure rates for the ISL code set, excluding the modifiers required as of Jan. 1, 2027 for unbundled EBPs under BHSA, which will be added in a future rate refresh
Reminder
Counties that added new programs are asked to complete meta tagging in production by Oct. 16. This will help ensure programs are properly linked to procedure rates once the refresh is deployed to Production.
Cleanup Scripts Planned for Suicide Risk Flags
Streamline will create cleanup scripts for the suicide risk flags introduced in the June MSP (EII #133336, Feature #640616), which automatically add client flags when a client screens positive for suicide risk on ASQ, PHQ-9, and C-SSRS assessment documents. The scripts will soft delete all flags generated by the new PHQ-9 logic and deactivate all flag types. CalMHSA will share timing for the scripts as details become available.
Streamline is also working on a configuration key to make this functionality optional. The key is expected in the October 2026 MSP, which is slated to reach QA systems in December. CalMHSA will set the configuration key to not use the functionality, but counties will be able to modify the key and reactivate the associated flags if they choose to use it.
Upcoming Initiatives
See the EHR Product Team’s upcoming initiatives in this list, updated as products and priorities evolve.
CalMHSA EHR Initiative Report 10-15-26.
Events Calendar
To register for events, visit the events page.