Its CARF! Its MADNESS! Its CARF MADNESS!

Well, it is the time of year when Mental Health Professionals begin descending on conference halls across the country. They do this in order to get the latest and greatest information about CARF.

CARF is an accreditation body for my field. It so happens that without this type of accreditation, most insurance companies will not pay us to provide services to their subscribers. So, if we don't have CARF accreditation, we don't get paid.

I'm leaving Detroit this afternoon for Chicago. The next 2 days will be spent desperately absorbing as much info about CARF as humanly possible. You see, my facility is due to be AUDITED by CARF soon. They actually send people, physically, to the facility and inspect EVERYTHING. They check our building, our security, our record keeping, the records themselves, our financial stability, and about 2 million other things. It is WORSE than the IRS.

Ideally, none of this is a HUGE problem. Most facilities just keep up with the changing rules and regulations. Unfortunately, we've fallen behind. When my boss took over this practice from the other partners a couple of years ago, he wasn't all that familiar with CARF. The other partners handled that mess of duties. Now that we are due to be audited, he is crapping his pants realizing how far we've drifted from the MIRCO-MANAGED standards that CARF sets forth.

I'm going with him to the conference because, frankly, preparing for the CARF audit is AT LEAST a two-person job. That and I'm due to become a partner in the business in the next year or two.

I expect that this conference is going to be DEADLY BORING. I really hope I'm wrong. I'll add updates as we go.

Wish me luck. I have a feeling I'm going to need it (if for nothing else, just to stay awake).

I have to get packed, like, now.... I wonder if Red Bull flies well... :)