Mind Phone

Kaiser Permanente mental health and wellness offers the Mind Phone telephonic psychiatric consultation phone line to all medical and mental health practitioners in the Kaiser Permanente delivery system.

Mind Phone is for provider-to-provider consultation only and is not for patient use.

Practitioners can call the Provider Assistance Unit at 1-888-767-4670 to be connected to Mind Phone on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Messages will be responded to within 30 minutes. Providers can also send consultation requests via Epic staff messaging to Mind Phone. Holiday, after-hours, and weekend consultation is not available.

Mind Phone psychiatrists are available to assist with:

• Reaching a diagnosis
• Making psychotropic medication recommendations and decisions
• Providing information about psychotropic medications
• Deciding which psychotropic medications (including non-formulary medications) to continue for a patient transferring their care to Kaiser Permanente
• Deciding on next steps in treatment
• Deciding whether to make a referral
• Addressing questions about our mental health and wellness service line and our delivery system
• Responding to a patient or family question
• Coordinating care (deciding to whom to refer, who handles which aspects of care, etc.)
• Deciding which psychotropic medications (including non-formulary medications) to continue for a patient transferring their care to Kaiser Permanente

For referrals, members must call the Mental Health Access Center (MHAC) at 1-888-287-2680 or 206-901-6300. Providers can also enter a referral order in Epic – Ref Mental Health – and MHAC will attempt to contact the patient to process the referral request.

MHAC arranges and authorizes payment for mental health and addiction and recovery services that are determined to be:

• Medically necessary, and
• Covered by the member's medical coverage agreement

Patients do not need a referral from their primary care physician to obtain services. Some services require prior authorization for coverage.

Patients are encouraged to call Member Services to review their benefits and obtain member cost share. To access mental health and addiction and recovery services, members should contact the Mental Health Access Center prior to seeking services.