Issued: October 9, 2023

Partners Health Management has updated ProAuth to remove some features and has added a new dropdown to reflect pending residential placements. These changes are effective immediately.

What is happening?

  • Partners has removed the LOCUS and CALOCUS features from ProAuth. These are no longer required by the Department as communicated in Joint Communication Bulletin #429 in August 2022: https://www.ncdhhs.gov/joint-communication-bulletin-j429-terminating-requirement-locus-and-calocus-08172022.
  • Partners has added a new required dropdown feature, “Residential Placement Pending,” to reflect pending residential placements. The new dropdown has been added to both Inpatient (IP) Authorizations and Service Procedure (SP) Authorizations.
    • The new dropdown is required and the default is “NA.”
    • Providers are to use the dropdown to indicate if they have members in the process of being placed in residential level of care. (Examples of use are a member who is inpatient and needs to be placed in Level III Residential Services or a member who is in Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF) and needs to be stepped down to Level IV Residential Services.)

Why is this happening?

Partners is removing the LOCUS/CALOCUS features as they are no longer necessary. The new dropdown has been added to better monitor pending residential placements.

What is changing for providers?

  • Providers will no longer see the LOCUS/CALOCUS features in ProAuth.
  • Providers will be required to complete the new dropdown for pending residential placements.

What if providers have questions?

Please contact UMQuestions@partnersbhm.org with any questions related to prior authorization.