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