The Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) is pleased to announce that on May 2, the Ohio Children’s Initiative Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Information Technology (IT) System will launch for use across Ohio’s child-serving systems. We are writing to inform you of this exciting achievement and of steps we encourage you to take now to prepare to access the CANS IT system after go-live and to provide CANS assessment services to Ohio’s children and youth.
The new OhioRISE program will go live on July 1 and will use the Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS tool to establish eligibility. The CANS was developed with leadership from Governor DeWine’s Children’s Initiatives and Ohio’s child-serving state agencies and is used by a wide variety of providers to inform care planning and decision-making for children and adolescents with behavioral health needs. Certified Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS assessors are expected to use the CANS to gather all information about the child/youth and family story to describe their strengths and needs.
The new CANS IT System will:
- Document CANS assessments and reassessments/updates with a youth/caregiver. Certified Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS assessors will register and use the system to document these assessments in a single location.
- Support our cross-system goal of “one child, one CANS” and ensure that youth/caregivers do not need to retell their stories.
- Improve care continuity and collaboration. Outputs/results are accessible to assessors and care team members, promoting cross-system coordination in real time.
- Produce and review immediate Decision Support Model outputs and recommendations.
- Record information about the child/youth and their caregiver(s) within one shared system.
- Track trends and outcomes to identify gaps and inform access and capacity improvement efforts.
To prepare to access the CANS IT System on May 2, ODM recommends that you take the following steps:
1. Obtain your Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS certification
You must have Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS certification to register in the CANS IT System and complete a CANS assessment with a child/youth. To become a certified Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS assessor, you must:
- Complete CANS training with the Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (COE), which is responsible for providing statewide professional development activities related to the Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS assessment tool. Assessors must complete the Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) and Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS Comprehensive training with the COE.
- If you were already certified in a previous version of the CANS, you will need to complete the new version of the TCOM and Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS training session.
- Review the May-June TCOM and Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS training schedule in the attached document and register now! Additional CANS training dates will be announced each month here on the OhioRISE webpage.
If you are having difficulty accessing or enrolling in a CANS training, please reach out to the COE at hxd256@case.edu for assistance.
- Register on the Praed Foundation’s website to complete the CANS assessor certification exam and pass with a 70% or higher.
- The COE will provide you with a coupon code to waive the cost of the exam after you have completed their training.
- Register to use the CANS IT System on or after May 2, 2022.
- Please note, assessors must wait one (1) full day after passing the certification exam with Praed to register and begin conducting assessments in the CANS IT System. The CANS IT System receives this information from Praed to verify your exam was taken and passed.
2. Enroll as a Medicaid provider in order to bill for CANS assessments
You must be an enrolled Medicaid provider in order to bill for a CANS assessment. If you are a provider who is not currently enrolled in the Ohio Medicaid program and wish to enroll to provide any services under the next generation of Ohio Medicaid, including the CANS, please visit the following link to the Ohio Medicaid online application: https://portal.ohmits.com/Public/Providers/Enrollment/tabId/49/Default.aspx. Additional resources for provider enrollment are available on the Ohio Medicaid website.
Once you have enrolled as a Medicaid provider or if you are currently enrolled, you must add the “ORC – CANS Assessor” specialty to your provider enrollment. Please email ODM at Medicaid_Provider_Update@medicaid.ohio.gov to request that the “ORC – CANS Assessor” be added to your existing provider type, include the provider NPI and Medicaid ID in the body of the email, and attach the Praed Foundation certification in the Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS to fulfill the required documentation for this specialty addition. Click here to access the OhioRISE Provider Specialties Guide for additional guidance.
If you are interested in contracting with Aetna Better Health of Ohio, the OhioRISE plan, and Ohio Medicaid’s Next Generation Managed Care Organizations to provide CANS assessor services, you must contact them directly using the provider relations contact information found on the Ohio Medicaid Managed Care website’s Resources for Providers page.
Please note, Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS assessors are not required to enroll with Medicaid if they do not intend to bill Medicaid for the service. You may be a certified assessor and register in the CANS IT System without enrolling as a Medicaid provider.
3. Learn how to use the CANS IT System through training offered by ODM
ODM is offering recorded CANS IT System trainings and an Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS IT System User Guide to orient assessors to the new system. Click on the links below to access the new trainings. Click here to access Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS IT System User Guide.
| Training Type | Link |
| Assessor Registration | Click here to access |
| Youth/Child Search
Assessment Creation and Submission |
Click here to access |
Where can I direct my questions?
CANS training: Please contact the COE at hxd256@case.edu.
Medicaid provider enrollment: Please contact the Ohio Medicaid Provider Hotline at 1-800-686-1516.
OhioRISE program: Please contact the OhioRISE mailbox and visit the OhioRISE webpage for more information on OhioRISE.
Ohio Children’s Initiative CANS IT System questions: Please contact the ODM ITS mailbox and include “OhioRISE-CANS ” in the subject line for faster routing.