Looking for help for a family member? Start with the guides instead — this section is written for referring professionals.
For professionals
How quickly we respond to a referral
noindex.
It cannot publish until site.standards.referralToAssessmentDays is confirmed by ACHS. Every page needs a named approver before it goes live — DCH General Services §605.1.28 makes
each published version a retained advertising record.
Apple Community Health Services has not published a referral response commitment. A stated turnaround is only worth anything if it has been measured against real referrals and the agency will stand behind it every time. The measured figures will be published on this page, with the method used to produce them, once operations has them.
What this page will cover
- Time from referral receipt to acknowledgement of the referring party – measured, with the method stated, and reported separately for phone, fax and secure form referrals
- Time from referral receipt to first contact with the member or their authorized representative, which is the step that actually starts the case
- Time from referral to a completed level-of-care assessment, and what proportion of that interval sits with the agency rather than with a third party or a scheduling constraint
- The share of referrals that reach each outcome – accepted and moving, routed to the Area Agency on Aging or elsewhere, or closed – so a referrer can judge fit before sending
- What sits outside agency control, named explicitly: waiting-list position, Medicaid financial determination, physician availability, and facility scheduling
- How the figures are measured, how often they are refreshed, and what happens when one is missed
Questions people ask about this
Why does this page not state a response time?
Because no measured figure exists yet. A published commitment that gets missed is worse than no commitment, particularly for a referral source who repeated it to a family. The figure will appear here once operations has measured it against real referrals and will stand behind it.
What should I tell a family about timing in the meantime?
Tell them what the program does rather than what an agency promises. Waiver enrollment is measured in months, not weeks, and there is often a waiting list because the number of funded slots is limited. The timeline page sets out the stages and the realistic range, and that is the page to send a family to.
Can I find out where a specific referral stands?
Yes. Ask intake about the individual case. What can be shared depends on consent and on your relationship to the member, but receipt is always confirmed to the referring party and the direction of the case is communicated once it has one.
Related questions
- How to refer The three referral routes into ACHS for EDWP case management, what each one is for, what to have ready, and why PHI must never be sent by ordinary email.
- What we need from you The documentation checklist for an EDWP case management referral in Georgia: identifiers, clinical picture, level-of-care forms, transition context and consent.
- How long it takes Two to six months from first call to services starting is realistic for Georgia's Medicaid waiver, plus a possible wait for a slot. What happens in each stage.