Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutEI Provider Meeting Minutes 10-19-22Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 19, 2022 Staff Present: Jenn Hawbecker, Ashley McCartney, Stacey Brookens, Erin Nye, Trina Ross Providers Present: Rachel Bechtel (Aspirations), Megan Lesko (Building Blocks Therapy), Theresa Miller (Healthpro Pediatrics), Stefany Messina (Invo HealthCare), Lauren Everetts (Moving Mountains Pediatric Therapy), Krista Miracle (Pediatric Therapy Specialists) MEETING MINUTES Welcome & Introductions This meeting was held via Google Meet. All providers introduced themselves and their agency affiliations. Provider Updates & Announcements  Pediatric Therapy Specialists (PTS) o PTS has hired a part-time physical therapist (PT) and two (2) PTs will be going out on maternity leave.  Moving Mountains Pediatric Therapy o The new speech therapist that Moving Mountains hired prior to the last meeting has a full caseload, so they are starting the process of hiring another part-time speech therapist for the Franklin/Fulton County area. One of their physical therapists will be picking up more hours due to increased availability. o There are two (2) people certified now in infant massage in Franklin County, but they are experiencing some difficulty with scheduling and figuring out the best time of day to offer the class through The Family Center. They have some new flyers that are more standardized that do not provide exact dates.  Aspirations o Aspirations has no major updates for the Franklin/Fulton County area but they are in the process of hiring some new staff in other areas, Aspirations is involved in the coaching initiative in some counties.  Building Blocks Therapy o Building Blocks is considering adding a speech evaluator but they don’t have a speech therapist right now to do the speech evals.  Healthpro Pediatrics o Jenn introduced Theresa, from Healthpro Pediatrics, as a new provider for EI in the Franklin/Fulton County area. Theresa is happy to be a part of the team and will be filling in gaps in whatever capacity that they can. Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 19, 2022 Fiscal Updates  New State Set Rates o Jenn reminded everyone to make sure they are using the new rates.  Billing Adjustments o Ashley has been tracking when providers have been doing their billing adjustments. There has been a lot of billing adjustments come in. Jenn has requested everyone take a look at where they are in the process and how much they have left to submit then email her and Ashley with this information. Reminder – Please email both Ashley and Jenn when you have voids or adjustments with billing. Healthy Minds App  The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) offers access to Healthy Minds App for Pennsylvania Early Intervention, family support and home visitor professionals. A presentation was provided in September at the EI Policy Forum.  The app offers meditations, podcasts and other information to support your wellbeing. It’s a great way to take a step back and make sure to take some time to ensure your own health.  Jenn provided a handout that offers more information about the app and its features that providers will be able to hand out to their staff. The app can be accessed through the Early Intervention Technical Assistance (EITA) portal. The app is free for two (2) years and when you sign up there is a brief assessment. Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings Update  The Early Intervention Policy Forum held in September gave Jenn and a couple of our providers (PTS and Early Bird Therapy) the opportunity to hear about experiences from county coordinators, administrators, and therapists who have been providing this service and how it’s been going for them.  Participants in the forum engaged in a discussion to identify areas where support for sustainable implementation would be useful because OCDEL and EITA only have so much capacity to train new staff.  Currently, when counties participate in a cohort they go through an online training program and EITA offers online webinars to talk about the training. Around the beginning of the year and into spring, EITA creates professional learning communities to provide feedback on videos that providers submit of their sessions and review information from the training videos. o The training videos that are currently being used are provided through the University of Florida but EITA is working on having access to their own Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 19, 2022 training materials. Once this happens there could be opportunity for it to be available to more people who are interested. o Once a provider would complete the training on their own they would be put into a Trio, which is a group of providers who are trained. In the Trio, there is one master coach, who has been through all the trainings and additional trainings and knows how to look for indicators in videos submitted. Then there are two (2) other coaches who are looking to gain fidelity.  Next steps for Franklin/Fulton Core Leadership Team are to meet in order to develop an action plan for the coming year and see what steps are needed to move forward in the process. Please email Jenn with any ideas or suggestions.  On the EITA portal, there are great resources that Jenn shared and requested to have providers share with staff. We are on our second cohort of individuals going through the more in depth training. For those providers that aren’t doing that right now, we need to be talking about it with the families and providers to get comfortable with the information. There are short videos that example the process in more detail. Jenn noted that watching all videos provides enough time to be able to submit a training verification form to get credit for training time. You must have at least 15 minutes of training time so if you only watch a 10 minute video you must pair it with another video. o The portal also includes the Coaching Corner Newsletter which is a once a month email that gives tips and information about the coaching across settings. This past month, it highlighted a new training that is available. Trainings  Jenn requested to have all provider staff complete the new Supporting Adult Learners module on the Coaching Across Settings portal. For any new staff, please have them complete this new module as well as the EI Service Delivery: Coaching Across Settings and Family Guided Routines Based Intervention (FGRBI) modules that were requested in the past. These trainings will start to build everyone’s capacity until they are able to complete the full FGRBI modules and the other modules that go along with more in depth training. Staff can complete a training verification form and submit for training hours.  Writing High-Quality IFSP Outcomes and IEP Goals - please have your staff complete this training if they have not done so already.  ECO Training provided by Mary Anketell, EITA - o Jenn has the recording and handouts available for agencies that weren’t able to participate. Please email Jenn for more information.  OUNCE and ECO material is available for agencies who are interested. Please email Jenn for more information.  Tuscarora Intermediate Unit (TIU) and Lincoln Intermediate Unit (LIU) Transition meeting recordings are available. Please email Jenn if interested in the recordings. Staff can then submit a training verification form. Early Intervention Provider Meeting Wednesday, October 19, 2022  EITA Portal (eita-pa.org) has updated their annual training series. This series is now available. EI Provider Roster Update  Jenn requested to have any updates to the Provider Roster to her by Friday so that it can be sent out with the minutes. Provider Reports Due Prior to the Next Meeting  Quarterly Report of Expenditures (July-Sept) (for non-state-set rates) – November 15  Audited Financial Report (for fiscal year ending June 30th) – December 31  Audit Engagement/Extension Letter for calendar year ending December 31 – January 10  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 MHIDEI-416 Contract Required Reports and Due Dates. Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 18, 2023 starting at 10:00 a.m. Minutes by Trina Ross