Illinois Medicaid Comprehensive Assessment of Needs and Strengths

HFS has designated the Illinois Medicaid Comprehensive Assessment of Needs and Strengths (IM+CANS) as the approved IATP instrument; providers must utilize the IM+CANS to be reimbursed for IATP services.

Integrated Assessment and Treatment Planning (IATP) is a Medicaid service reimbursable to community behavioral health service providers.  IATP combines a mental health assessment and individual plan of care into one integrated tool, ensuring a customer’s assessment of needs and strengths are clearly documented and lead to specific treatment recommendations.  Providers must minimally review and update a customer’s IATP every 180 days.  

The IM+CANS serves as the foundation of Illinois’ efforts to transform its publicly funded behavioral health service delivery system. It was originally developed as the result of a collaborative effort between the Illinois Departments of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), Human Services-Division of Mental Health (DHS-DMH), and Children and Family Services (DCFS). Updates and revisions to the IM+CANS will be released from time to time based upon feedback and input received from stakeholders through the IM+CANS Workgroup.

The comprehensive IM+CANS assessment provides a standardized, modular framework for assessing the global needs and strengths of individuals who require mental health treatment in Illinois. Today, the IM+CANS incorporates:

• A complete set of core and modular CANS items, addressing domains such as Risk Behaviors, Trauma Exposure, Behavioral/Emotional Needs, Life Functioning, and Cultural Factors; 
• A fully integrated assessment and plan of care;
• A physical Health Risk Assessment (HRA); and,
• A population-specific addendum for youth involved with the child welfare system.

At the core of the IM+CANS is the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) and the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment (ANSA); communimetric tools containing a set of core and modular items that identify a customer’s strengths and needs using a ‘0’ to ‘3’ scale. These items support care planning and level of care decision-making, facilitate quality improvement initiatives, and monitor the outcomes of services. Additional data fields were added to the CANS items to support a fully Integrated Assessment and Treatment Plan (IATP), placing mental health treatment in Illinois on a new pathway built around a customer-centered, data-driven approach.

• IM+CANS Reference Guide 2024 (pdf)
  
• IM+CANS Core Form effective 04/01/2024 (Word version) (pdf) 
• IM+CANS Addendum 1 – Modules – effective 04/01/2024 (Word version)
• IM+CANS Addendum 2 – Health Risk Assessment– effective 02/08/2023 (Word version)
• IM+CANS Addendum 3 – Caregiver Resources and Needs – effective 04/01/2024 (Word version)
• IM+CANS Addendum 4 – DCFS Involved Youth – effective 04/01/2024 (Word version)
• IM+CANS Appendix A - Recommended Behavioral Health Services Intervention Key (pdf)
• IM+CANS Summary of Changes effective 04/01/2024 (pdf)

The Illinois Medicaid - Crisis Assessment Tool (IM-CAT) is a decision support and communication tool to allow for the rapid and consistent communication of the needs of customers experiencing a crisis that threatens their safety or well-being or the safety of the community.  It is intended to be completed by those who are directly involved with the customer.  The form serves as both a decision support tool and as documentation of the identified needs of the customer and of the decisions made about treatment and placement at the time of the crisis.

The IM-CAT is composed of a crisis subset of items from the IM+CANS.  The IM-CAT and the IM+CANS together comprise a broader toolkit of linked assessments that are designed to meet the unique needs of multiple public payer systems, while also breaking down barriers to accessing behavioral health treatment. This suite of assessments is designed to reduce the duplicate collection of administrative and clinical data points needed to appropriately assess a customer’s needs and strengths while establishing a commonality of language between customers, families, providers, and payer systems.

Providers delivering Mobile Crisis Response (MCR) services are required to utilize the IM-CAT as a component of service delivery.

• Illinois Medicaid Crisis Assessment Tool (Word version)
• Illinois Medicaid Crisis Assessment Tool (PDF)
• Illinois Medicaid Crisis Assessment Tool - Spanish (Word version)
• Illinois Medicaid Crisis Assessment Tool - Spanish (PDF)

HFS has partnered with the Provider Assistance and Training Hub (PATH) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to provide training and technical assistance to providers in the use of the IM+CANS and the IM-CAT.  Staff must attend training through PATH and complete annual certification to utilize the IM+CANS and the IM-CAT. 

Looking for the IM+CANS or IM-CAT training schedule? All courses are now open for registration in Adobe.  If you haven't already set up your Adobe account, please navigate to https://go.uillinois.edu/MTAC to create your account with Medicaid Technical Assistance (MTAC) Virtual Training Platform and register for a class.

• IM+CANS Workgroup
• IM+CANS Provider Portal

• Webinars & FAQs (html)

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis or you have concerns for their immediate safety, that they may harm themselves or worry that they may require inpatient psychiatric treatment, please contact the CARES line at 1-800-345-9049 to access mobile crisis response services. Services are available 24/7, 365 days a year.

If you need immediate assistance or are experiencing a medical emergency, please contact 911.