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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIDD Provider Meeting Minutes 08-19-22Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Provider Meeting Friday, August 19, 2022 MEETING MINUTES Welcome & Introductions This meeting was held via Google Meet. Those present introduced themselves and their agency affiliation Administrative Entity (AE) Updates – Marion Rowe  Enterprise Incident Management (EIM) Updates There has been some confusion on the requirements for entering COVID-related reports into the EIM system. Marion has received confirmation from Teresa Burgard at the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP). The requirements for entering an incident related to COVID are still the same. - If a person has symptoms and gets tested regardless of their results, the expectation is that the incident report is filed. If you receive an email from the ODP reviewers that a report is not needed, please reach out to Marion so she can forward the communication to ODP. The communication from Teresa is to undelete them. She still expects the reports to be entered if they come in as negative. - If an individual does not have symptoms and tests positive for COVID, an incident is required. The only time an incident does not need to be entered is if an individual does not have symptoms and tests negative. This may occur if an individual is exposed to COVID and the testing is done out of precaution. If it’s negative, no incident report is needed. The purpose of entering an incident if an individual has symptoms and tests negative is due to ODP tracking. At one point, ODP was trying to move away from putting negative results in HCSIS but due to COVID trends they are tracking the information again. When COVID numbers are lower, ODP tends to back up on the information needed for tracking. Teresa has also noted that the reason for this is that some individuals are testing negative one day then a few days later testing positive. They would then have two (2) incident reports. ODP is collecting data within COVID incident reports. You may receive an email from AE staff if ODP is requesting more information related to vaccination status, number of individuals living in the home, the number of staff, how the provider is trying to reduce the spread of COVID within the home, etc. All this information needs to be included in the first section of the incident report, especially if the individual is living in a residential or licensed day setting. ODP is still tracking risk mitigation and trying to reduce the spread of COVID. IDD Provider Meeting Friday, August 19, 2022 A beneficial feature in EIM is that the AEs are able to undelete incident reports that providers may have been instructed to delete. This is a helpful tool as it means providers would not have to re-enter the incident. Anything that comes up that Marion cannot clearly answer or is getting a different response from the ODP rep doing the review, she reaches out to the person giving direction on what they need to see, which is Teresa. Sometimes Teresa is not readily available so Marion awaits to hear from her which is why sometimes it may take a little longer to complete the incident review. Marion provided Teresa from ODP an example of an incident that ODP reviewers requested to be deleted. Marion puts in the comments of the incident report to refer to Teresa who noted that the report is needed. If this occurs, please reach out to the AE and they will follow up. --------------------------------------- Reminder – When you are doing a protective service notification page and answering those question in the incident report, your answer should either be YES or N/A. Yes is that you contacted a protective services agency and N/A if the allegation did not require you to contact them. If you answer no then it appears that it was required and you have not contacted them yet. -------------------------------------- The fall and difficulty walking worksheet will be sent out with the minutes for use when an individual falls. The worksheet goes over questions related to a fall, such as has the individual had any recent changes in medication and did the individual stand up suddenly. Please reference this worksheet when completing incidents as Audrey Wicks utilizes this sheet when reviewing the reports. If you can answer the questions on the worksheet and include them in the report it will save time.  Kidz Therapy Zone Kidz Therapy Zone provides occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy to adults. They will need a referral or script from a doctor but they can assist in getting the information needed. Kidz Therapy Zone accepts Medical Assistance (MA) and private insurance but does not accept Medicare. You can call or fax the referral to include basic demographic information. It should include who the primary care physician is as well as any issues or concerns. Kidz Therapy Zone does request that staff or a caregiver is present during appointments. Kidz Therapy Zone is located at 32 Parkwood Drive in Chambersburg https://ktherapyzone.com/. IDD Provider Meeting Friday, August 19, 2022 Person Directed Supports had two (2) individuals going to Kidz Therapy Zone. One of the individuals had a history of struggling with communication. In the past, things such as iPads, text cards and other communication forms were provided but were not successful. Kidz Therapy Zone re-introduced the iPad to him and it has been successful for him. They have been doing a lot of good work with individuals we support. It was noted that it is hard to find outpatient services for adults who take MA. Kidz Therapy Zone can also provide detailed recommendation on any assistive technology devices that is needed. This is a good resource for families looking for the three (3) types of services noted above. Individuals must have a major diagnosis. It does not have to be specific to Autism. Lori Young  Quality Assessment & Improvement Updates John Gerak will be attending onsite visits with Lori this year and will become certified. There are five (5) providers that have an onsite visit this year. For all providers, whether Lori is the lead AE or not, self-assessments are due on August 31st in QuestionPro. For Franklin/Fulton, the six (6) providers that Lori is the lead for, she asks that you send the QuestionPro confirmation email to her and include John. This is not a requirement of ODP but ODP has informed AEs that they are responsible to know if the self-assessments were submitted or not. For the five (5) providers that have onsite visits, the Master Provider Index (MPI) ends in 0, 1, or 2. John and Lori will send samples, a participation letter and submission checklist once a date is scheduled for the onsite visit. John and/or Lori will be calling providers next week to complete the scheduling. The onsite visits will occur between September and November 30th. The visits are not due until December 31st but this will allow December if visits need to be rescheduled for various reasons. John and Lori will be preparing for the onsite visits and determining if they will do them together or if John will take on the training piece and Lori will cover the data and policy. Regardless, they both will be attending the visits together. Jane Cline  Reauthorizations for MA Jane sent an email with a list of those who need reauthorizes for MA. Reapplications have not been completed throughout the pandemic emergency declaration. Once that has been lifted, they will automatically discontinue. If you are working with an individual that has not completed a reauthorization, please help them get it completed online through Compass or IDD Provider Meeting Friday, August 19, 2022 at the County Assistance Office (CAO). If it is a Franklin County individual, they will now go through Indiana County CAO and if it is a Fulton County individual, they will go through Bedford County CAO. Franklin County is no longer completing MA enrollments for reauthorizations. John Gerak  John introduced himself as the new IDD Program Specialist. He is not new to the Human Services world as he has worked in juvenile services for 17 years. He was previously employed at Merakey and Children & Youth Services in Cumberland County. He has a Master’s in Administration of Justice. John enjoys working with the IDD community any brings a new set of eyes to County IDD.  Please include John in emails that are sent to Jane, Marion and Lori. As his roles and responsibilities change, providers will be updated.  Once John gets into QA&I deeper, we will be sure to update providers. As things come through, you’ll see different emails come from John and Lori. Any questions, please reach out to John if you cannot get in touch with Lori. Stacey Brookens  If anyone has any questions, topics or needs clarification on anything that they want taken to the Pennsylvania Association of County Administrators (PACA) meetings, please let Stacey, Marion, Jane, Lori or John know. Supports Coordination Organization Updates – Matthew Yingling & Shanna Golden Service Access & Management (SAM) is looking to hire another Supports Coordinator. A couple of interviews were completed this past week. Also, Alanna Hamilton is off until September. SAM has been informed by ODP that they have to start doing face to face visits beginning October 1st. This means they will no longer be able to do the phone monitorings; it must be virtual or face to face. For the most part, SAM has been doing visits for a while. The change is that phone monitorings cannot be completed which has been convenient with some individuals that have been a struggle to get ahold of. When SCs initially started going back to face to face visits, individuals were excited to see people they have not seen for a while. HealthCare Quality Unit Updates – Laura Dadswell The fourth quarter syllabus has been published and emailed out to the provider group. Providers can still generate any referrals to the HCQU for any education or training for individuals, staff or families. This is still available in addition to the virtual trainings that are listed on the syllabus. Reports - IDD Provider Meeting Friday, August 19, 2022 Friendly reminders of due dates for our Base funded providers - See Procedure Statement MHIDDEI-416.  August 15th - o Quarterly Report of Expenditures (April – June) o Property Purchased/Property Leased Report for FY ending 6/30 o Fixed Assets Purchased with MH/IDD/EI Funds for FY ending 6/30  15th of each month – Monthly Invoices If you have any fiscal related questions, please contact Ashley McCartney (almccartney@franklincountypa.gov). Provider Updates –  Focus Behavioral Health – Robert Reed Rob is a Skill Building Specialist and Participation Manager at Focus Behavioral Health. Focus has been working mostly with individuals with Autism up until now but are moving towards working with individuals with IDD. Focus provides in home and community services, community participation, in home respite, and behavioral, companion and employment support to the IDD community.  Angels on Call – Kiera Angels on Call provides companion and in home and community services. They are looking to grow. Kiera is the new MH/IDD Specialist at Angels on Call.  Family Care Services (FCS) – Tony Fisher Family Care Services provides mainly Lifesharing to individuals with IDD. They do also provide respite but have not provided this service for some time now. The new Individualized Service Plan (ISP) manual is out. The most significant change is the travel policy. It used to be 30 days but is now 90 days. Tony talked to Jim and Ron regarding substitute care. It is unlicensed and temporary. It needs to be agency approved but it is not licensed. There is really no limit. Regulations require certain requirements such as 6100 regulations, Individual Support Plan (ISP), etc. to be approved. But their home does not get inspected. Tony discussed an experience he had with the new Indiana County COA. They were notified by letter that a packet was not returned but they never received it. FCS emailed the contact that Jane provided and within an hour the packet was sent. It was a quick response time. FCS completed the packet right away. They were told that the CAO is not denying anyone right now even though it was due back in June.  Occupational Services, Inc. (OSI) – Beth Freeman Gabby Snider is expected to return in early September. In the meantime, please send referrals to Beth for services at OSI. IDD Provider Meeting Friday, August 19, 2022 The Supporting Individuals Transitioning to Employment Success (SITES) program is going to begin accepting referrals for IDD individuals. There is still not a start date for this but OSI will begin accepting referrals.  JT Mummert – Katie Lively Katie is the Director of Adult Services. JT Mummert provides direct support professionals in home and community and behavioral supports.  Safe in Home – Linda Knecht Safe in Home provides assistive technology and remote supports. In the fall, they will be setting up new Question & Answer (Q&A) sessions to learn more and answer questions that anyone has about their services. If you would like to schedule a session, please let Linda know.  The ARC of Franklin and Fulton Counties – Lorrie Miller Lorrie is the Executive Director at the ARC. The ARC provides in home and community services, companionship, respite, transportation and they just started their social rec and socials back up.  Person Directed Supports – Rachel Travis Rachel previously oversaw the programing department in residential services but now oversees all Franklin/Fulton areas for residential services.  Merakey – Teresa McNally Teresa is the Regional Director for Merakey. Merakey provides residential services in Franklin County. Hopefully in mid-October, Merakey will be trying to open their day program, in at least small capacity. Upcoming Trainings –  See attached HCQU Syllabus Next Provider Meeting Friday, November 18, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. Minutes by Erin Nye