Psychiatric Inpatient Discharge Planning Practices and Attendance at Aftercare Appointments.

Objective: This study examined discharge planning practices by hospital providers for 17,053 psychiatric discharges in New York's statewide Medicaid program.

Methods: Claims data were linked to information reported to New York State by managed behavioral health care organizations (MBHOs) conducting inpatient utilization reviews. MBHOs documented hospital providers' reports of the presence of three discharge planning practices for each discharge: communicating with an outpatient provider prior to discharge, scheduling an aftercare appointment, and forwarding a discharge summary.