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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEI Provider Meeting Minutes 10-20-21Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 20, 2021 Staff Present: Jenn Hawbecker, Ashley McCartney, Stacey Brookens, Erin Nye, Dan Rhodes Providers Present: Lauren Everetts, Krista Miracle (Pediatric Therapy Specialists of South Central PA), Cynthia Bosserman and Lori Beam (PennCares Support Services), Holly Whiteside (Service Access & Management, Inc.), Marci Walborn (UCP of Central PA), Stefany Messina (Invo HealthCare Associates), Sila Alegret-Bartel (ICTM), Adam Rowland (Advanta Therapy), Deborah Marsilio (Inspire Health and Education), Megan Lesko (Building Blocks Therapy), Keith Parker (Early Bird Therapy) MEETING MINUTES 1. Welcome & Introductions This meeting was held via Google Meet. All providers introduced themselves and their agency affiliations. 2. Provider Updates and Announcements PennCares Support Services PennCares Support Services will be hosting a “Care for the Family Caregiver” presentation on October 22nd which is being offered either in-person at the LifePoint Church in Chambersburg or as a webinar. This event is open to Franklin County residents. Registrations are still being accepted through the PennCares website. The presentation will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. followed by a resource fair at LifePoint Church from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Parents of children with special needs and family members that care for adults with disabilities are the intended audience for the presentation. Free classes at Lotus Moon Yoga and Hammer & Stain will be made available to all participants in attendance. The presentation and free classes are being funded through a Summit Endowment grant. Cynthia Bosserman will send additional information about the event to Jenn Hawbecker for distribution to all EI providers. Pediatric Therapy Specialists of South Central PA Krista Miracle has been pursuing a doctorate in Occupational Therapy. She is currently developing a survey on how each provider utilizes the Routines-Based Interventions (RBI) Coaching Model during EI sessions for her research project class. Krista will be contacting providers to request approval to send the survey to their staff. The purpose of this survey is to gain baseline data on the use of the RBI Coaching Model. All survey responses will be anonymous and the results will be shared with providers. Krista would appreciate any assistance that providers could give in regard to completing the survey. Service Access & Management (SAM), Inc. SAM has hired another service coordinator. Heather Cook started her position on October 4th and is currently going through a six (6) week training program. Heather has several years of experience working for the County and SAM in mental health case management roles. Heather will not receive any EI cases until completing the training program and shadowing other service coordinators. This new hire is eventually expected to address the caseload burden that has existed over the past year due to the vacant service coordinator position. Fulton County Medical Center Fulton County Medical Center is continuing to experience challenges with staffing due to limited therapist availability. Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 20, 2021 Lauren Everetts Lauren has been working to get the processing of her Medical Assistance (MA) billing numbers expedited. 3. Fiscal Updates State Set Rates Jenn reminded providers to use the current state set rates when submitting their billing claims. Some claims have still been submitted using the old rates. Provider billing staff are most likely making these errors out of habit or due to program auto-populating forms with the old rate amounts. 4. Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) Updates: Continuing to Safely Provide EI Post-COVID There have been no new COVID updates from OCDEL other than that EI providers should continue to follow the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance. OCDEL presented links to relevant CDC guidance and Early Intervention Technical Assistance (EITA) Portal informational resources during the last EI Leadership Meeting in August. These links have been included in this meeting’s PowerPoint presentation slides in red font and, when clicked, will take you directly to each resource or a specific section of the CDC website. Jenn will share any additional updates with providers that are presented during the next EI Leadership Meeting on October 29th. The CDC is still recommending that individuals wear masks indoors. EI providers should continue to respect and be mindful of any requests from families to wear masks in their homes. Although masks can cause communication difficulties between adults and during service delivery, it is important that both providers and families wear them to keep everyone safe. Jenn has continued to track COVID case numbers and positivity rates within Franklin and Fulton Counties. While these numbers and rates have been higher lately, they are holding steady. Professionals in the medical field have advised that, as more individuals are apt to get vaccinated, levels of COVID transmission will ease over time. Krista asked Jenn to clarify quarantine requirements and the definition of “fully vaccinated” based on current CDC guidelines. Krista observed that there has been some confusion over whether a booster is needed to be considered fully vaccinated and how long fully vaccinated individuals must quarantine following a confirmed COVID exposure. Jenn stated that she would identify CDC guidance pertaining to Krista’s questions and include this information in the meeting minutes. Providers may refer to these links: “When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated: How to Protect Yourself and Others” (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019- ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html) and “Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People” (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully- vaccinated-guidance.html). 5. Tele-Intervention Update EI providers are still able to offer the option of tele-intervention services to families after state legislation was signed into law that extends the regulatory waiver through March 31, 2022. Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 20, 2021 Tele-intervention services are not written into a child’s Individual Family Support Plan (IFSP). It is acceptable for families and providers to have tele-intervention sessions instead of meeting in-person whenever necessary. The use of tele-intervention should always be documented in session notes. Likewise, the family should sign off on the session notes or an encounter form for billing purposes. 6. Battelle Developmental Inventory, 3rd Edition (BDI-3) Megan Lesko provided an update on the BDI-3. Building Blocks Therapy started using the BDI-3 on September 20th. Evaluators have done a limited number of assessments with the BDI-3 so far. If the family has a child over two (2) years old scheduled for an Annual Review, providers should let them know that the BDI-3 will take a little longer than the BDI-2 because there are more pictures to show during the assessment. Evaluators have been doing about the same amount of informed clinical opinions (ICO’s) with the BDI-3 compared to the BDI-2. Annual information received from other providers has been helpful in supporting ICO’s especially with regard to quality of skills or weakness on one (1) side that is not measured by the tests. The children that are qualifying for ICO still tend to have expressive/receptive gaps or a specific condition such as torticollis. Megan has instructed the evaluators to also use the Developmental Assessment of Young Children, 2nd Edition (DAYC-2) when the child is between three (3) months and ten (10) months old so that the results can be compared with the BDI-3 in order to identify the best test. The DAYC-2 asks a few more questions and has been used with this age group in the past. An evaluator recently used both assessments for a one (1) month old child and determined that the DAYC-2 results were a better reflection of their abilities. Overall, the evaluators are continuing to familiarize themselves with the BDI-3’s questions and administration which are slightly different from the BDI-2. Jenn asked Holly Whiteside if the service coordinators had given feedback on the BDI-3 yet. Holly noted that the service coordinators have not expressed any concerns or negative comments about the BDI-3 and consider the resulting adjustments in routine to be part of a learning process. 7. Early Intervention Technical Assistance (EITA) Portal Early Intervention Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings OCDEL’s Bureau of Early Intervention Services and Family Supports (BEISFS) is requiring all EI provider staff to complete the Early Intervention Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings course during the 2021-2022 fiscal year (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022). This course can be located on the Professional Development page of the EITA Portal (http://www.eita- pa.org/professional-development/) by searching “Early Intervention Service Delivery” and selecting “Apply filter.” Each staff member will receive a certificate of completion and one (1) hour of Infant/Toddler training credit from EITA once they have viewed the course. Certificates should also be uploaded to the Provider Registry so that Jenn can verify that the course has been completed. Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 20, 2021 Agency administrators may choose to present the course to all staff as an in-service activity. They can request certificates for their staff by sending an in-service sign-in sheet to Molly Martz (mmartz@pattan.net). Jenn has already taken the course. She found it to be a very informative overview of how the new coaching model will be implemented and what it will look like within the EI Program. Clarification on EITA Courses and Job Aids Jenn has previously given clarification to providers on the differences between various online resources (i.e. courses, job aids, web objects, performance support materials) that are available through the EITA Portal and EITA Mobile app. While EITA offers training credit hours and a certificate of completion for certain resources, others are only intended to serve as brief learning opportunities or refreshers. A chart explaining the definitions for EITA online resources is included in this meeting’s PowerPoint presentation slides. Jenn observed that provider staff often have difficulty getting training hours that are specific to EI. Licensed professionals take several trainings to maintain their licensures but these do not always count towards EI training hours. Furthermore, courses that are completed through the EITA Portal can only be counted for training credit hours once even if an EI Program requires them to be taken every year. Marci Walborn asked Jenn to confirm whether or not job aids could be counted toward professional development hours. Jenn confirmed that EITA will provide a certificate of completion for job aids but will not issue any training credit because these resources are less than an hour in length. Jenn will still count job aids that are at least fifteen (15) minutes long if staff upload their certificate and a completed training verification form to the Provider Registry. Providers may send Jenn any questions/concerns regarding the clarification on EITA’s online resources. She will refer these directly to EITA. 8. Progress Monitoring Outcome Summary (PMOS)/Annual Review Forms Jenn had a meeting with Megan, Holly, and the service coordinators a few weeks ago to discuss the information on the PMOS and Annual Review Forms. Through that discussion, the meeting participants decided to tweak the information on these forms in ways that would be helpful for service coordinators and evaluators. Erin Nye has since created fillable versions of the updated forms which will be sent out with the meeting minutes. The PMOS Form will be submitted to service coordinators for the three (3), six (6), and nine (9) month reviews. Information for each outcome being worked on should be included in the answers to the form’s progress and recommendations section questions. By completing this form, therapists provide important details about the child’s progress to the service coordinator and a snapshot for the family. The Annual Review Form will only be submitted to service coordinators at the time of the child’s Annual Review. If a therapist has any additional information to share with the service coordinator and evaluator that may be affecting the child’s progress (i.e. family does not participate well during sessions and/or follow through with services), it should be included in the body of the email containing the attached Annual Review Form. The family Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 20, 2021 will not see this information. The PMOS and Annual Review Forms have the same progress section questions. There are additional questions in the Annual Review Form’s recommendations section which will help the service coordinator/evaluator determine whether the child needs any new outcomes including the associated teaching strategies and measurement. Cynthia asked Jenn if the Annual Review Form should be sent to both the service coordinator and evaluator. Jenn confirmed the Annual Review Form and the accompanying email with additional information could continue to be sent to both if this is her agency’s normal practice. Krista asked Jenn if it was acceptable to submit the PMOS Form without a graph. Jenn confirmed that this is acceptable as along as the PMOS Form is completed with ample information. Holly observed that updates to the PMOS and Annual Review Forms were intended to help therapists by making the expectations for submitted information more clear/uniform and creating a more user friendly process overall. Holly suggested that any input from service coordinators and therapists regarding the forms could be shared and discussed during the next EI Provider Meeting. 9. EI Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings Update Jenn provided updates on OCDEL’s EI Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings initiative. The Franklin/Fulton EI Program is currently in the Installation Phase of the initiative. Jenn would like to work on developing a consistent message about coaching and the initiative throughout the entire program. Jenn highlighted the Principles of Early Intervention in Pennsylvania (see PowerPoint presentation slide) that were discussed during the most recent Core Leadership Team Meeting. She requested that providers share these principles with their staff. Franklin and Fulton Counties previously went through training for a coaching model that was different from the one that OCDEL is currently teaching. Providers should focus on being aware of the principles and learning the new coaching model which is through Family Guided Routines Based Interventions. There are two (2) professional development resources related to coaching on the EITA Portal. As previously mentioned, OCDEL is requiring all EI provider staff to take the Early Intervention Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings course during the current fiscal year. Jenn is highly recommending that staff also take the Family Guided Routines Based Intervention (FGRBI) course. Jenn will decide whether the FGRBI course should be required for all Franklin/Fulton EI providers after she has completed it. This course would count towards the required twenty-four (24) hours of annual training time. Both courses can be accessed on the Coaching Across Settings page of the EITA Portal (https://www.eita- pa.org/coaching-across-settings/) along with a “Providers’ Perspective on Coaching Families and FGRBI” video and various web resources. Jenn suggested that providers review the following new resources on the EITA Portal: “Principles of Early Intervention in Pennsylvania” and “Early Intervention Supports and Services: Facts for Families.” Links to these documents can be found within resources Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 20, 2021 section of the EITA Portal’s Families page (https://www.eita-pa.org/families/resources/). Clicking the links will take you to the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) website where the documents can be downloaded in English or Spanish versions. As per the Core Leadership Team’s action plan, Jenn will continue to discuss the initiative at each EI Provider Meeting and share updates on where the Franklin/Fulton EI Program is in the implementation process. Providers should continue to talk about the EI Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings announcement with their staff while ensuring that they complete/review relevant courses and resources. Staff should be able to understand the initiative and share this information with families. 10. Additional Updates and Announcements Vision Provider Needed for Franklin and Fulton Counties Franklin/Fulton EI is still seeking a vision services provider for Franklin and Fulton Counties. Providers may refer any individuals or agencies that offer vision services directly to Jenn. Updated EI Provider Roster Jenn will be sending out an updated copy of the EI Provider Roster with the meeting minutes. Providers should let Jenn know if they have any changes that need to be made to the roster. 11. Provider Reports Due Prior to the Next Meeting  Audited Financial Report for fiscal year ending June 30th – December 31st  Audit Engagement/Extension Letter for calendar year ending December 31st – January 10th  Monthly Billing – due 15th of each month  Employee Debarment and Exclusion Check – due 15th of each month Reminders of these reports are sent out 3-4 weeks prior to their due date. You can also review the reports/due dates in procedure statement MHIDDEI-416 Contract Required Reports and Due Dates. Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 19, 2022 starting at 10:00 a.m. Meeting format (i.e. in-person, virtual, call-in) has yet to be determined. 2022 Meeting dates: January 19 April 20 July 20 October 19 Minutes by Dan Rhodes