October 5, 2017 - Illinois Interagency Council on Early Intervention

Audience

Open to the general public.

Time

10:00 am to 1:00 pm

Location

Illinois Primary Healthcare Association
500 South Ninth Street - 2nd Floor
Springfield, Illinois

Agenda

  • Call to Order
  • Introduction of Council Members
  • Approval of July 19, 2017 Draft Meeting Report
  • Lead Poisoning Workgroup
  • Telehealth Workgroup
  • Ongoing Updates
    • IMPACT
    • Service Delivery Approaches (SDA) Workgroup Recommendations
    • Cornerstone
    • Parent Reimbursement
    • Digital Signatures
    • Budget
    • Bureau Staff
  • Service Delays Data
  • DRAFT 2018 Council Dates
  • Adjournment of Meeting

Present

  • Bob Cammarata, ICG Health Care Services
  • Benny Delgado, Leaps and Bounds Family Services, Inc.
  • Ann Freiburg, Part C Coordinator, IDHS, Bureau of Early Intervention
  • Margaret Harkness, IL Council on Developmental Disabilities
  • Vicki Hodges, ISBE, McKinney-Vento
  • Ginger Mullin, IL Dept. of Public Health
  • Rosalina Perez, Parent
  • Kathy Schrock, Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley
  • Ralph Schubert, Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC)
  • Lori A. Orr, Illinois Early Learning Council
  • Rita Wahl, CFC 20 Program Manager
  • Angel Williams, IL Dept. of Child and Family Services
  • Karen Woods, IL Department of Insurance
  • Amy Zimmerman, Legal Counsel for Health Justice

Absent

  • J. Diane Adams-Alsberry, CALM, Inc.
  • Karen Berman, Ounce of Prevention Fund
  • Teresa Bertolozzi, Parent
  • Brenda DeVito, CFC 6 Program Manager
  • Kristi Doan, IL State Board of Education
  • Donna Emmons, IL Head Start Association
  • Roselyn Harris, DHS, Bureau of Child Care & Development
  • Brandy O'Connor, Parent
  • Deanna Pratscher, Parent
  • Kelly Cunningham, IL Dept. of Healthcare & Family Services
  • Lynette Strode, IL Assistive Technology Program
  • Kathy Ward, IDHS, Division of Developmental Disabilities
  • Therese Wehman, Elmhurst College
  • Constance Williams, Ph.D., IDHS, Division of Mental Health

Meeting Report

Council Packet

  • Agenda
  • Draft Council Meeting Report - July 13, 2017 Meeting
  • Lead Poisoning Workgroup - Announcement Part-Time Contract Position: Early Childhood Health Policy Project Manager
  • Early Intervention Program Caseload Summary Report
  • Draft 2018 Council Meeting Dates

1) Call to Order

Kathy Schrock called the meeting to order at 10:02 am. Kathy stressed the importance of council members RSVP'ing to the meetings within 48 hours of receiving the meeting notice from Jenni Grissom, so that we can plan accordingly if we do not have enough council members to have an official meeting.

2) Council Member Introductions

Kathy asked Council members to introduce themselves and share their affiliation.

3) Approval of July 13, 2017 Draft Meeting Report

Bob Cammarata moved for approval of the July meeting report; Amy Zimmerman seconded. Motion passed.

4) Lead Poisoning Work group

Amy Zimmerman, Legal Counsel for Health Justice

The workgroup is moving forward. Amy recently attended a conference and has secured a grant for a pilot program on automatic eligibility for EI services when testing positive for lead poisoning.

An analysis of the data was performed to see what automatic eligibility would look like for a Child and Family Connections (CFC) office. The analysis showed that lead poison population could be absorbed into the EI system. Guidance needs to be understood that not all delays will be evident from lead poisoning right away and that all children need to be as close to kindergarten ready as possible. Legal Counsel for Health Justice is currently seeking a part-time contract person to help organize and implement this pilot program. A copy of the job posting was an attachment to the council packet.

There will be a change in Illinois policy for federal compliance and the rollout will be in January/February 2018. We need to proactively look for preventative methods and where exposure is occurring. There is not a lot of data available for treatment just on declining the exposure. We know that with lead poison exposure, the client will show some deficiencies at some time in their life and the earlier we begin to intervene, the easier it will be to build the architecture of the brain for future brain development of strong skills needed later in life. Many factors must be considered while researching this developmental disability such as brain development, development of strong future thinking skills, looking at milestones and other risk factors. Some risk factors to consider are the capacity of parents and other interactions that may happen. We will need to give providers ideas and resources in a format for families to help them move forward with better outcomes. Some are looking at incident maps in the state where there are high populations of lead poisoning. Many hot spots also involve poverty and minority status neighborhoods, which also hold many other adverse risk factors. We want to be a leader in the country by not waiting until there is a delay due to lead poisoning by trying different route, giving automatic eligibility into EI services and being a model that other states can follow. This method is being adopted by the Governor's Children Cabinet Workgroup to help with their home visiting training to know how to identify environmental hazards. It is important that every child be tested, especially in high- risk areas. We must be proactive to move forward with this problem for our clients.

5) Telehealth Workgroup

Bob Cammarata, Provider Representative/Benny Delgado, Provider Representative/Amy Zimmerman, Legal Counsel for Health Justice

Bob and Benny are working on the action steps to move Telehealth (teleintervention) forward with both education for the EI community and legislation needed by looking at other states legislation practices. Bob stated that they have a meeting with EI training program on Friday, October 13, 2017. Many providers are indecisive about this mode of communication just as Benny was. Most will need to be open-minded and have an EI model to follow for clear direction. The EI model will need to be seen and tried out first. Benny shared that he had reservations about this new mode of communication. He did not want to lose out on personal connections that are so important in our work. Benny showed a video clip of how intervention can work with a family and the Early Interventionist. This method can hopefully be used in areas where the family's location provides some challenges with both security and service areas.

Questions were brought up from participants and council members about HIPAA compliance, technology including equipment requirements, lack of WI-FI in certain parts of the state, data usage on phones, if phones were an option, and recordings of provider's sessions, which will all have to be addressed for this kind of communication to work for our clients. A forum will be needed to bring together all participants involved to see if all will be interested in this mode of communication. The question has been asked if we can use this approach for service delay as a means of communication to reach the clients that we are currently having difficulty reaching. Ann stated that prior to moving forward with any changes to EI legislation, that she first must reach out to other states to gather information on how they have put this into practice and their solutions to all of the barriers we foresee. Ann went on to say that Illinois has many different practice acts. These acts would also have to be reviewed to ensure that Tele-Health/Medicine/Intervention is within their scope of practice. Additionally, we would have to look at Insurance Code. Then there is still the issue of confirming with HFS that Medicaid will pay for this service, which would be a change to Medicaid State Plan. Ann agreed to gather information from states and have more discussion. Motion to look into updating legislation to include tele-practice language and the EI Act. Amy made the motion and Bob seconded the motion. None opposed.

6) Ongoing Updates

Ann Freiburg, Bureau of Early Intervention

* IMPACT

Heather Hofferkamp, Bureau of Early Intervention

IMPACT is not ready to accept atypical providers, including translators at this time, due to a problem with interfacing with the legacy program. Some of the problems with IMPACT are due to the providers making modifications and then the system kicks out the modification. The system is setup to update automatically. Right now, we do not have any guidance to move forward but Heather will be sending out an email to help with clarifications on updating provider licenses.

* Service Delivery Approaches (SDA) Workgroup Recommendations

 Ann has transferred the workgroup recommendations into a timeline template for easy of viewing and progress to date shown. Thus far she has completed nine and will finish the rest if the council approves. Benny really likes the new format and Ann would like the council to review the "SFY18 Time Line to Implementation" document and send their comments to her in the next few weeks.

* Cornerstone

 Cornerstone will be ending as of April 2020. Ann has been meeting with the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) staff to discuss EI program needs on an ongoing basis. DoIT is continuing to update the Cornerstone system requests as made by programs. At this time, DoIT has sent out a Request for Information (RFI) to have demonstration by software companies who might already have a system that EI can use to replace Cornerstone. Ann has shared a Data System guideline which involves the data thought process involve for EI program. EI does not necessarily need its own system but does need a system that will fulfill our needs.

* Parent Reimbursements

A conference call was held two weeks ago and Ann is working on the group's recommendations and will update the council once procedures are finalized.

* Digital Signature

Digital signatures are permitted, but electronic signatures are not. IDHS has a free electronic system that can create digital signatures but Ann is researching about how the process works with the state's encryption. OSEP Leadership and DaSY also have guidance on digital signatures that must be considered before acceptance. More information will be shared once Ann is finished with her research of digital signatures in the future.

* Budget Update

The EI Program has been budgeted to receive $97.2 million for SFY 2018, which is the most budgeted thus far for our program. At this time, we have paid provider payments thru August 9, 2017. We will be working on getting Part C funds and Targeted Case Management (TCM/Medicaid) money to help with extra funds also. To help with TCM funds, the Bureau asks providers to check their Provider Claim Summaries and to please submit all EOB that have zeroes also. We had a federal audit and the feds would like us to show our liability month by month.

* Bureau Staff

The bilingual Public Service Administrator position has been filled by Melissa Gould. She will join the Bureau on November 1, 2017. The data manger position job title was resubmitted to CMS in early September 2017 and we should know something about the position within the next few weeks.

7) Service Delays Data

Ann Freiburg, Bureau of Early Intervention

Ann was unable to retrieve the data for this meeting. Ann is working on specifics on where we are at this time. She is working with statistical data with map/locations on service delay areas. We need to be able to show needs in the community and if the parents are choosing other alternatives for their children's needs. Ginger Mullin asked what happens to the children that she refers to EI. We are looking for the data on how many kids get lost in the system and at what stage they stop with EI services. Lori Orr does have a meeting with Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) workgroup on November 1, 2017. Another idea brought up is to have barriers and strategies document made up and sent out to the CFCs in the near future to give more directions and help to the CFC's LICs.

8) Draft 2018 IICEI Council Dates

Ann Freiburg, Bureau of Early Intervention

Draft dates for IICEI were approved as follows:

  • Thursday, January 11, 2018 - Alsip, Illinois
  • Thursday, April 5, 2018 - Springfield, Illinois
  • Thursday, July 12, 2018 - Palos Hills, Illinois
  • Thursday, October 4, 2018 - Springfield, Illinois

9) Adjournment

Next meeting is January 11, 2018. Benny motioned for adjournment and Amy seconded. The meeting adjourned at 12:38pm.

Contact Information

Jenni Grissom
IDHS - Bureau of Early Intervention
823 East Monroe
Springfield, IL 62701
Ph: 217/524-1596
email: jennifer.grissom@illinois.gov