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Home My WebLink AboutEI Provider Meeting Minutes 04-20-22Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, April 20, 2022 Staff Present: Jenn Hawbecker, Ashley McCartney, Stacey Brookens, Erin Nye, Dan Rhodes Providers Present: Lauren Everetts (Moving Mountains Pediatric Therapy), Krista Miracle (Pediatric Therapy Specialists of South Central PA), Cynthia Bosserman and Lori Beam (PennCares Support Services), Stefany Messina and Jenn Consorti (Invo HealthCare Associates), Sila Alegret-Bartel (ICTM), Adam Rowland (Advanta Therapy), Megan Lesko (Building Blocks 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 ICTM Sila Alegret-Bartel gave a brief overview of ICTM’s translation and interpretation services. ICTM provides these services to various agencies, government offices, and medical facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. PennCares Support Services PennCares will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in business this coming October. PennCares will be hosting a free training and resource fair for family caregivers on May 13th at the LifePoint Church in Chambersburg. Providers are encouraged to set up information about their services at the resource fair. The family caregivers in attendance will receive a certificate for a yoga session or painting class after completing pre/post-surveys on their stress levels and self-care activities. Jenn Hawbecker previously sent a flyer for the event to all EI providers. Any providers that would like to participate or know of individuals that would be interested in attending should contact Lori Beam or Cynthia Bosserman. Pediatric Therapy Specialists (PTS) of South Central PA PTS currently has some student interns that are doing session observations in order to figure out which type of therapy they will be pursuing in their future careers. A PTS occupational therapist will be going on leave in June and should be able to return by the beginning of July. Krista Miracle has been working with the service coordinators to arrange coverage for children on the therapist’s caseload during this time. Building Blocks Therapy A Building Blocks speech therapist will no longer be doing evaluations for Franklin/Fulton Counties in order to focus on treatment in Cumberland/Perry Counties. The therapist can shift back to doing these evaluations if the need arises. Invo HealthCare Associates Stefany Messina is currently onboarding a speech therapist for her team. Moving Mountains Pediatric Therapy Lauren Everetts shared that Fulton County’s Kick Off for a Drug Free Summer event will take place on June 10th at the Fulton County Medical Center. This year’s event will not have a specific theme. Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, April 20, 2022 3. Fiscal Updates Contracts The FY 22-23 contract season is currently in progress. Jenn and Ashley McCartney will be reviewing budgets and processing contracts between April 1st and May 7th. Each provider’s starting encumbrance amount for FY 22-23 will be based on their ending encumbrance amount for FY 21-22. As always, encumbrance amounts will be monitored throughout the fiscal year and a contract will be amended if the provider is getting close to the end of their encumbrance due to serving more County-funded children. These amendments prevent providers from being over-encumbered and ensure that they will be paid in a timely fashion. Providers may contact Jenn and Ashley if they any questions or would like to discuss their contract, budget, or encumbrance amount. Voids and Adjustments Reminder Providers should email both Jenn and Ashley whenever they have a void or adjustment with their billing. Voids and adjustments come through a little differently on the billing system that Jenn and Ashley use which can sometimes make it difficult for them to follow exactly what happened. An email containing the details and explanation for each void or adjustment will ensure that providers receive the correct payment. 4. Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) Updates: Safely Provide EI Post-COVID Jenn provided an overview of recent COVID-19 updates that OCDEL shared with EI leaders. EI service delivery in Pennsylvania is mostly back to normal. Providers should continue to respect any family’s request to wear masks in their home. Wearing masks is still considered best practice since many of the children that receive EI services are medically fragile. OCDEL also advises providers to follow current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 guidance. There are links to the CDC guidance in the PowerPoint slides for this meeting. Early learning programs should be allowing EI providers to come into their child care centers for service delivery. If providers are aware of any early learning program or child care center that is not allowing access to their facility, they should notify Jenn and contact the appropriate OCDEL Bureau of Child Care Certification Regional Office. A representative from the Bureau’s Central Region Office has asked Jenn to provide the names of child care centers that are not allowing access. Providers must follow any safety protocols that child care centers have in place including mask requirements. Child care centers should specifically be allowing providers into their classrooms because coaching techniques are to be provided in the child’s natural environment. Providers should avoid pulling a child from the classroom to provide services one-on-one in a hallway or another room. 5. Early Head Start (EHS)/Head Start (HS) Vaccination Requirements The Office of Head Start (OHS) is requiring any staff that provides services within an EHS or HS program classroom to be vaccinated. This requirement does not apply if the child attends a home-based EHS or HS program and services are provided within the home. Franklin/Fulton EI currently has only one (1) or two (2) children that receive services within an EHS classroom. If a child that attends an EHS program classroom is new to EI, the Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, April 20, 2022 service coordinators will alert providers within the referral itself so they can take this into consideration when assigning the child to a particular therapist. 6. Tele-Intervention Update As per OCDEL, tele-intervention services can still be provided under the COVID-19 disaster declaration through June 30, 2022. Therapists should contact their licensure board if they have any specific questions about providing tele-intervention services after June 30th. OCDEL has only provided guidance stating that there is currently no Pennsylvania statute that specifically authorizes or explicitly prohibits telemedicine/tele-intervention. There are links to the tele-intervention updates in the PowerPoint slides for this meeting. 7. EI Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings Update New videos have been added to the Early Intervention Technical Assistance (EITA) Portal’s Coaching Across Settings page (https://www.eita-pa.org/coaching-across-settings/). Jenn emphasized that it would be very beneficial for direct providers of EI services to watch these short videos. There is no certificate for the videos but providers can submit a training verification form after watching all of them to earn time towards required training hours. The videos are helpful for both experienced staff that previously learned the Shelden and Rush coaching model and new staff that are now learning the Family Guided Routines Based Intervention (FGRI) model. As a reminder, OCDEL is requiring all provider staff to complete the Early Intervention Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings module during FY 21-22. EITA will issue a certificate for completing this module and staff will earn one (1) Infant Toddler clock hour. Likewise, Franklin/Fulton EI is requiring all provider staff to complete the Family Guided Routines Based Intervention module during FY 21-22. Jenn is not sure whether EITA will issue a certificate for this module so staff can submit a training verification form after completing it. Staff will earn two (2) Infant Toddler clock hours for the module. There are links for both modules on the EITA Portal’s Coaching Across Settings page. 8. Early Intervention Technical Assistance (EITA) Portal – Professionals Page Writing High-Quality Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) Outcomes and Individualized Education Program (IEP) Goals OCDEL is asking provider staff to watch the Writing High-Quality IFSP Outcomes and IEP Goals webinar which can be accessed via a link on the EITA Portal’s Professionals page (http://www.eita-pa.org/professionals-2-2/). OCDEL is not requiring staff to watch the webinar during the current fiscal year. Jenn observed that the webinar is a helpful tool for all provider staff because service coordinators write the IFSP outcomes based on the input they receive from therapists and special instructors. The link on the Professionals page will take staff to a YouTube video of the pre-recorded twenty-five (25) minute webinar. EITA will soon be releasing answers to the frequently asked questions that were submitted in response to the webinar’s live version. Providers may send Jenn any questions they have after watching the webinar. Jenn will forward these questions to EITA Consultant Liz Wagner-Simmons. Additional Resources Jenn highlighted additional resources on the EITA Portal’s Professionals page which can be shared with families and provider staff including The Importance of Play in Early Childhood, Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, April 20, 2022 Developmental Milestones, It’s Never Just Play!, Resources to Support Tele-Intervention, and Early Intervention Announcements. Developmental Milestones is an interactive tool that generates corresponding descriptors for different ages and developmental areas/domains. Cynthia mentioned that the CDC website offers many resources that are related to recent updates to the developmental milestones and promotion of the Milestone Tracker App. These resources can be viewed at the following link: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/ccp/early-care-and-education.html. The CDC also publishes a series of free children’s books in English and Spanish for one (1), two (2), and three (3) year old children that features age specific developmental milestones content. The books and other materials can be ordered at the following link: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/pubs/cdcinfoondemand.aspx?ProgramID=233&CDC_AA_refVal=htt ps%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Factearly%2Forders%2Findex.html. PennCares will probably be putting these books in their intake packets. 9. Additional Updates Family Survey Update As of last week, seventy-two (72) family surveys have been returned which is a 28.57% response rate. Franklin/Fulton EI has currently exceeded the requirement for returned surveys. It is still important to receive as many surveys as possible because the results will help guide the EI Program and address any areas where families have lower satisfaction levels through Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) goals. Providers should continue to encourage families to complete the survey through the end of June. Jenn confirmed that the family survey results will be shared with providers whenever this information becomes available. Jenn will share the recently updated QEP with providers during the next EI Provider Meeting in July. EI Provider Roster Update Jenn recently sent out an updated EI provider roster. All providers have since responded with their updates. Providers should notify Jenn about any additional staffing changes that have occurred within their agencies. An updated EI provider roster will also be sent out with this meeting’s minutes. New Special Instruction (SI)-Vision Provider Franklin/Fulton EI is now contracting with VisionCorps for vision services. VisionCorps is based out of the Lancaster, PA area so they are only able to provide their services via tele- intervention. Jenn is still looking for a local provider (i.e. vision itinerant/teacher of the visually impaired) to serve two (2) children that are currently receiving vision services. Jenn asked the meeting participants to let her know if they are aware of any local providers that would be interested. Vision services are ideally delivered in the home so that the provider can directly observe the child and help the family adapt their environment if necessary. 10. Provider Reports Due Prior to the Next Meeting  Audited Financial Report for calendar year ending December 31st – Refer to Procedure Statement MHIDDEI-412 Audit Requirements – June 30th  Audit Engagement/Extension Letter for fiscal year ending June 30th – Refer to Procedure Statement MHIDDEI-412 Audit Requirements – July 10th Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, April 20, 2022  Progress Report on Outcomes in Appendix A (not required for contracts with an encumbrance under $50,000) – July 31st  Staff Training Logs entered into PD Registry – Refer to Procedure Statement EI-105 Training Requirements – August 1st  Schedule of Revenues/Expenditures for fiscal year ending June 30th (for non-state- set rate) – August 15th  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, July 20, 2022 starting at 10:00 a.m. Meeting format will most likely be blended (i.e. participants may either attend in-person at Franklin County Human Services Building or via Google Meet). 2022 Meeting dates: July 20 October 19 Minutes by Dan Rhodes