ICANS

What agencies can have access to the ICANS system?

Access to ICANS is granted to provider agencies in accordance with the Department of Health and Welfare, Division of Behavioral Health (DBH), and ICANS provider agency agreement.

A provider agency is defined as “a Covered Entity (agency/organization/individual) or a Business Associate of a Covered Entity as defined under HIPAA; and an entity which is involved in same or similar populations and have an equal obligation to maintain confidentiality and requires collaborative staffing with DBH in conformance with IDAPA 16.05.01.100; and has entered and complied with an ICANS Agency Agreement with DBH.”

ICANS is a secure, electronic, internet-based system used to administer and manage CANS (Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths) assessments in Idaho. This means that anyone accessing ICANS is required to have a current, signed ICANS authorized user agreement on file.

An authorized user is defined as “Individual(s) designated by an authorized agency or DBH as having job duties necessitating access to ICANS, and who have met all conditions and signed an authorized users agreement with DBH.”

Agencies that have access to ICANS participate as one of the following:

• Idaho Medicaid approved agencies
• Idaho Medicaid/Optum approved agencies
• Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections
• Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (Division of Behavioral Health, Medicaid, Family and Community Services if the child is involved with their programs)
• Other entities as determined and approved by DBH

*Access permissions to ICANS are assigned according to specific role-based needs. Not all agencies will have the same access to the ICANS system.

How does my agency request access to the ICANS system?

New Agencies Guide to Adding Online Portal Ticket - This step-by-step guide will show new agencies how to submit their paperwork to the Automation Help Desk.

1. Complete the agency access requirements:

a.    Review the Agency FAQs

b.    Review the Privacy Polices

c.    Review the Security Safeguards

d.    Review, complete and sign the ICANS Agency Agreement

e.    Designate up to two staff as the agency ICANS administrator (AIA). The AIAs must sign the ICANS Authorized User Agreements and must attend an AIA training. Note: access to ICANS will not be granted until the AIAs have attended the AIA ICANS training.     

2. Complete an Online Portal Request for the agency and AIAs to be set up in ICANS. Review the ICANS eManual for additional information and instructions. 

10/23/2023

RESOLVED!

The issue with the Mountain and Pacific WITS production sites has now been resolved. If you are still encountering issues with WITS, please log out and log back in to see if that resolves the issue. Otherwise, please contact the Automation Help Desk at dbhautomationhd@dhw.idaho.gov or call 208-332-7316.

UPDATE: This may be impacting the ability for users to log into the system as well.

We have identified an issue in Mountain and Pacific ICANS production sites which is not allowing users to save or upload anything into ICANS. We are currently working with FEI to resolve this issue. Currently we do not have an ETA of when the issue will be resolved. We greatly appreciate your patience as we try to resolve this issue.

10/7/2022

ICANS email system is now back up. The Automation Help Desk can once again reset credentials, enable accounts, update email addresses and create new users.

10/7/2022

We have identified the following issues with ICANS:

• The email system for ICANS is down. This impacts enabling and resetting credentials (password/PIN). The Automation Help Desk is unable to re-enable accounts or reset credentials.
• Unable to add/update email addresses in ICANS. This impacts the Automation Help Desk’s ability to create new ICANS user accounts and updating email addresses in ICANS.

We are working with our vendor to resolve the issue. We currently do not have the ETA when this issue will be resolved. We will update as we receive additional information.

11/30/2021

ICANS Mountain and ICANS Pacific production sites have been restored.

11/29/2021

ICANS is currently unavailable. It is down for both Mountain and Production sites. We are working with the vendor to restore access. We will post updates as we get more information.

8/26/2021

The DBH Automation Helpdesk may be unavailable today between 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. MT due to internal meetings. The issue has been resolved that was preventing the DBH Automation Helpdesk from receiving emails.

8/23/2021

The DBH Automation Helpdesk is experiencing issues that are preventing incoming and outgoing emails. Users are encouraged to submit an online support request through the Support Portal to ensure that requests are received. Updates will be provided as they become available. 

6/28/2021

The ICANS Production sites will be updated on 06/28/2021 to the 20.6.8 release.  Effective Monday, June 28, 2021 users should begin using only the browser Chrome when accessing ICANS. Please note that if you continue to use Internet Explorer (IE) you may encounter functionality that that no longer works in IE. Only issues identified in the browser Chrome will be resolved effective immediately.

5/31/2021

The Automation Help Desk will be closed on Monday, May 31, 2021 in observance of Memorial Day.

3/29/2021

The ICANS Training site will be unavailable all day on Thursday (04/01/2021)/Friday (04/02/2021) while the Training site is updated to the 20.6.6 release. No one will be able to access ICANS Training while the update is taking place.

3/27/2021

The ICANS production sites will be unavailable from 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (MT) on Saturday, March 27, 2021 while system maintenance is conducted.  No one will be able to access ICANS while the update is taking place. 

3/15/2021

Effective Monday, March 15, 2021, the password/pin criteria for the ICANS Production sites will be updated to the new security standard. Users do not need to immediately update their password/pin. Instead, the next time a user needs to change their password they will be required to meet the new standard. 

Beginning on 03/15/2021 a password/pin for ICANS must include:

• Minimum of 6 characters long
• At least three different character types out of the following: 
  • Uppercase
  • Lowercase
  • Numeric characters
  • Special characters

3/13/2021

The ICANS production sites will be unavailable from 4:00 a.m. – 4:30 a.m. (MT) on Saturday, March 13, 2021 for a system update. No one will be able to access ICANS while the update is taking place. 

3/10/2021

The Help Desk will be closed today (Wednesday, 03/10/2021) from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. MT for an Automation Unit meeting.

12/21/2020

Regarding a recent nationwide issue related to information security:

The vendor for the Division of Behavioral Health’s information systems, including WITS and ICANS,  reviewed the current security advisory from SolarWinds (https://www.solarwinds.com/securityadvisory) and found that both systems are not running a vulnerable version. The vendor will continue to monitor this situation and will be alerted to anomalous behavior, and through new vendor information as it becomes available. The Vendor will re-evaluate risk  should additional details be revealed impacting the current state. Please direct any questions to Seth Schreiber, Automation Program Manager.

9/28/2020

As of September 30, 2020 all clients in the current DHW regional agencies WITS agencies were moved to the new single DHW agency called DHW Behavioral Health. You will no longer be able to send a consent/referral to any of the individual DHW Regional agencies (DHW Region 1, DHW Region 2, etc.). When creating a referral, select the agency of DHW, Behavioral Health, then select the appropriate regional office. See the guidance document on the resources page.

6/30/2020

The Division of Behavioral Health is postponing the implementation of the consolidated agency within WITS initially scheduled for tomorrow, 7/1/2020. The DBH did not come to this decision lightly. We are committed to the project and believe it to be a key component to modernizing the organization of the Division’s electronic health record. The Division decided to postpone the implementation so that we are able to investigate recently discovered issues that could critically impact the success of the project. The consolidation project will be postponed until 7/7/2020, or until a time where the DBH has fully considered the best way to move forward. We understand that you or your staff may have received a number of recent communications, instructions, or training related to this project, but given the postponement we request that you or your staff defer any related action related to this project until further notice. The Division of Behavioral Health, especially the automation unit and helpdesk, sincerely appreciate your continued patience and cooperation.

Updated information has been posted on our FAQ page regarding verbal consents and the Informed Consent.

10/30/2020

Under the guidance of the Praed Foundation the Division of Behavioral is moving to a live version of the CANS Certification Training. As of November 1, 2020 any first time certifier will need to attend a live training session offered by the Division of Behavioral Health. These will be offered throughout the month to ensure adequate access. Individuals who have already been certified on the CANS do not need to take the live training and may access the recertification exam via the Praed platform. However, individuals who wish to participate in the live training may chose do so. New users can register for training through the Idaho TCOM Institute website. 

ICANS TRAINING Site

ICANS Training Site

The ICANS Training site is accessible to users who want a safe environment (“a sandbox”) where they can have the freedom to experiment with using the system without compromising the information in the real (production) ICANS system. We encourage all ICANS users to use this site to test the ICANS and become familiar with the technology. For additional information, or to request access to the testing site, contact the ICANS Helpdesk.

Required ICANS Partner and Provider Training 

This is a required training for all ICANS users. Training is divided into eight online training videos before being granted access to the ICANS system. 

• Introduction to the ICANS System
• Adding a client
• Consents & referrals: Creating a consent and referral to another agency
• Consents & referrals: Accepting referrals and linking consents from another agency
• Creating and signing a CMH CANS assessment
• ICANS episode management
• ICANS reports
• ICANS offline CANS assessment

New users must complete all eight training videos before being granted access to the ICANS system.

• New users must inform the agency’s ICANS administrator (AIA) upon completion of all required training.
• The AIA is the ICANS agency’s designated person who will notify the help desk and attest on a staff member’s behalf to the completion of the required training. The AIA must submit this through the Online Portal.
• AIA training is conducted via Webex and the schedule can be viewed under the calendar.

For CANS Certification information and training, please go to the Idaho TCOM Institute.

Automated services help desk online portal

Create an online portal request to ask for assistance, report an issue, or request new/updated access to ICANS.

System updates

ICANS has a monthly release that updates the system by correcting errors and adding additional functionality. Notes for these releases can be found here.

• 03/30/2020 -- ICANS Release Notes for 19.8.9

• Can I use a verbal consent when completing the informed consent?
• Can I let someone use my ICANS log-in information?
• Who is responsible for gathering signatures on the ICANS informed consent? Is it the Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) or is each agency responsible?
• Is there a method of opting out of having data stored in ICANS?
• There is a cost for my agency to print the ICANS informed consent and the parent and child FAQs flyer. Will copies of these forms be provided to my agency?
• Are CMH CANS assessments completed by Liberty available to DBH in ICANS?
• I am a community provider and I can view the consented CMH CANS assessments that Liberty has already completed in the ICANS. Can I consent the assessment completed by Liberty to another community provider or DBH?
• Are CMH CANS assessments completed by community providers available to DBH or Liberty in ICANS?
• I signed the ICANS informed consent, why do I have to sign a release of information to share my child’s ICANS record with the community provider?
• If a juvenile client is ordered to complete a GAIN assessment by the courts, will we be able to sync the GAIN from WITS to ICANS or will the GAIN/Chestnut portal be available through the ICANS system?
• Do providers have to keep a paper copy of the signed informed consent, or can we scan and upload it into our EHR?
• Are electronic signatures allowed on the informed consent?
• If a parent refuses to sign the consent for their child’s information to be put into ICANS (but will allow a CANS assessment), are providers still able to render services? The parent doesn’t want anyone to be able to “see” the ICANS.

ICANS USER GROUP

The ICANS user group is a monthly Webex call and presentation with news and updates about the ICANS system. All ICANS users are invited to attend. The meetings are listed on the calendar. Registration is not required.

• ICANS User Groups 2019
• ICANS User Groups 2020
• ICANS User Groups 2021