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August 1, 2023

Note: New Content Noted with Asterisks* and Highlighted.

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Important Updates

Phone Scam Targeting Physicians and APPs*

Children’s has received several reports of phone scams targeting healthcare professionals, so we wanted to make you aware and share what you should do if you receive one of these calls.

 

In recent weeks, several physicians and Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) at Children’s have received calls from someone claiming to be a police officer or other law enforcement official, saying the physician or APP has failed to appear in court after receiving a subpoena and an arrest warrant has been issued. The caller either asks the physician or APP to pay a fine over the phone or to enter personal information into a website. This is a sophisticated scam – the calls appear to be coming from a legitimate county phone number and the caller gives the name of someone who is an actual police officer. 

 

If you receive a call like this, don’t share any information and contact your legal counsel for further assistance.

TCCN Sponsors the Children’s Annual Professional Staff Meeting

The Children’s Care Network is sponsoring the 2023 Children’s Annual Professional Staff Meeting on Wednesday, August 23 at 6:00 pm at the Children’s Support Center.


This meeting replaces the TCCN Fall Clinical Quality Forum, so your attendance at the event will count towards your 2023 meeting attendance requirement.

 

We have coordinated to make tables available for subspecialty physicians to connect with pediatricians and other physician attendees.


This networking opportunity has been requested by many of you and we strongly encourage pediatricians in particular to attend

 

Please note that this meeting will not be recorded. Come and enjoy free food, beer and wine! 


If you have not sent your RSVP and are planning to attend, please respond to the calendar invite that you should have received from Physician Communications or complete this online registration.


Click to Register

TCCN Antibiotic Stewardship Webinar: Why It's Important For Your Practice and Patients

Join us on August 16 at 12:30 pm as we continue our 3-part virtual series 'Antibiotic Stewardship: Why it's Important for Your Practice and Patients'.


This lunchtime series presents the new Georgia Pediatric Antibiotic Stewardship website, gpas-online.org, designed to help you in your busy practices with guidelines and a new antibiogram visualization tool.


Webinar #2: August 16, 12:30-1:30

  • Prescribing Guideline
  • The goal of this guideline is to help clinicians choose the most narrowly focused antibiotics based on the most likely bacterial pathogens and treat for the shortest effective duration


Please be sure to register in advance to receive the meeting link. Same-day registrations may experience issues with logging on.


If you missed it, click here to watch

Webinar #1: How to Access and Use the Website


Save the dates for upcoming webinars:


Webinar #3: November 1: Antibiotic Dosing

Register Now!

Children’s to Decommission Physician Portal June 30: Explore Frequently Used Links

Children’s is decommissioning the Physician Portal on Friday, June 30, in response to feedback captured via the Physician Wellness Pebble in My Shoe Program.


As we prepare for the decommissioning, we wanted to share links to some of the most frequently visited areas of the portal, including UptoDate, Patient Education/Teaching Sheets, CME information, and Project ECHO.


Please review this tip sheet for more information.


If you have questions, please email physician.communications@choa.org.


TCCN is currently evaluating where to place these frequently visited portal sites on our own intranet. We will send an update when the resources are available on the TCCN site.


Payor Updates

Georgia to reinstate eligibility verifications 

The state of Georgia has begun reinstating eligibility verifications for Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids members, which were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic.


The Georgia Department of Human Services and Georgia Department of Community Health are asking Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids members to confirm their contact information as soon as possible before Medicaid redeterminations which were re-started on April 1. Practices can assist by notifying your patients and members that it is very important for all members to update their contact information. Members may update their contact information online, by phone, or in-person at a local DFCS office. 

 

Federal law requires all states, including Georgia, to check who is still eligible to receive Medicaid coverage within 14 months.


It is operationally critical for all practices to ensure they are conducting benefit verification during this time.

Amerigroup

Amerigroup Notification Error Update

On May 23, 2023, Children’s was notified that Amerigroup members received notices advising them Scottish Rite Hospital is out-of-network as of May 15, 2023. Amerigroup is the Medicaid CMO that covers all kids in foster care in Georgia as well as many other children across the state.

 

Amerigroup confirmed that the member notifications were sent in error due to a system issue that has impacted many providers. There should not be any network disruption for Amerigroup policy holders.

 

Contact managedcare@choa.org if you or your patients experience any authorization issues related to the inaccurate notification.

Quality Programs

Quality Steps Newsletter

Check out the July issue here!

Value Added Services

For questions regarding TCCN Value Added Services, please reach out to

Barbara Douglas, TCCN Associate Director of Programs at Barbara.douglas@tccn-choa.org.

Welch Allyn Spot Vision Screener Program

TCCN and McKesson are pleased to announce a special buying program for the Welch Allyn SPOT Vision Screener. This program is only available to TCCN Members through McKesson. Please see the brochure here for additional information.


EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR THE CHILDREN’S CARE NETWORK

  • Offer valid April 1st, 2023 - September 30th, 2023
  • $500 Rebate + 5-Year Warranty (Valued at $1,736)
  • $2,236 in Total Savings!!!
  • Eligible devices for trade in include: Welch Allyn SureSight Vision Screener, Welch Allyn Spot Vision Screener (2.0 model), PediaVision, GoCheck Kids, Plusoptix, MTI, Topcon, Retinomax, Titmus V Series, Stereo Optical Vision Screeners, Canon, Reichert, Marco and/or iScreen brands

 

 Please contact your McKesson Rep for any questions.

New Medical Supplies Program - McKesson

The TCCN Value Added Services Team is excited to announce a new Medical Supplies Purchasing Program with McKesson! TCCN and McKesson have entered into a multi-faceted program for all TCCN Community practices!


Immediate Available Benefits:

  • 2 – 5% Estimated savings with special pricing on top 100 items 
  • Free Next Day Shipping – waived shipping minimums and fuel surcharge
  • .5% prompt pay 15 days, net 30-day payment terms


Click here for more program details

Community and Education

Roadmap for Emotional Health Resources*

As you may know, in 2022 we launched an MOC program for our subspecialty members based on the ABP’s Roadmap project designed to bring additional awareness and training to providers around emotional, behavioral, and mental health.


This program was highly successful and more than 25% of our subspecialists completed the training which focused on managing the emotional health of children with chronic conditions and their families.


This training is available to all providers regardless of specialty, and you can watch the 5-minute introductory video here and review more details about the program here including instructions on how to claim MOC credit.


Additional Training Available:


Cincinnati Children’s Grand Rounds: Addressing the Emotional Health of Children and Youth with Chronic Conditions and Their Families


Tune in for a 1-hour presentation about the American Board of Pediatrics Roadmap Project as part of the Cincinnati Children's Grand Round series. This presentation includes patient and parent voices, highlights resources to support the emotional health of children with chronic conditions and their families, and discusses the impact of bias on emotional health. This recording is a must-see for anyone interested in improving the emotional well-being of children, youth, and families affected by chronic conditions.

 

Physicians are eligible to receive ABP MOC Part 2 credit by viewing Grand Rounds and completing a short online post-test.

 

View the Grand Rounds Recording Here



The Roadmap Project maintains a website (www.roadmapforemotionalhealth.org/patients-and-families) with resources that you may find useful as you manage the behavioral health needs of both well patients and those with chronic conditions, including apps to support mindfulness and emotional health that have been reviewed by Psychologists. It includes a complete description of the various apps and appropriate age ranges. You will find culturally relevant resources for patients and families choosing a therapist. 


We have included links to those resources below as well. 


Physician Outreach Webinar: Aerodigestive Care

Topic:

Physician Outreach Webinar Series: Pediatric Aerodigestive Care


Date:

August 15th, 2023 from 12:00-1:00pm via Zoom


Speaker:

Dr. Anita Deshpande


Description:

Join us for the monthly webinar series hosted by Children's Physician Outreach and the Physician Education department. This month, Anita Deshpande will be discussing pediatric aerodigestive care.


Click Here To Register!


Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is accredited by the Medical Association of Georgia to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Children's designates this internet live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.


Stark Law disclaimer: In order for Children’s to meet Stark Law regulatory requirements that allow Children’s to provide a limited amount of non-monetary compensation to physicians, we must note your participation in this CME activity at a value of $25 per credit hour. This amount will be applied to your non-monetary compensation allowance. No action is required on your part and you will be notified if you are nearing the limit by the physician education team. The total non-monetary compensation allowed for 2023 is $423.


Pediatric Mental Health Training from the REACH Instititute

Free CME Opportunity for TCCN primary care physicians in 2023 and 2024!


This is an excellent opportunity for TCCN members to get free training in pediatric mental health. An Atlanta donor has granted the REACH Institute an opportunity to allow free training for the Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care (PPP) program, to primary care providers practicing in the Greater Atlanta area!

 

The course dates for this year and 2024 are: 


  • September 8 - 10, 2023
  • October 13 - 15, 2023
  • January 19 - 21, 2024


For More Information About the Program Click Here.


Participants will earn a maximum of 28.25 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM for completing this program.


Click Here to Submit an Online Application for the Program


Required CME for Physicians - Sexual Misconduct

HB458 was passed into Law in 2021 and was effective January 1, 2022 and requires that each physician complete a 2 hour course in “professional boundaries and sexual misconduct in medical practice” before renewing their GA medical license (this is a one-time requirement).  

 

TCCN’s Malpractice Carrier, Curi, has two 1 hour CME courses on “Sexual Misconduct” that fulfills the new GA license requirement for HB458. Please see instructions below on how to access.

 

Instructions:

  • Login in to your Curi account at www.curi.com
  • Click on your initials at the far top right of your screen. (Your initials will appear with a yellow circle around them)
  • Select CME webinars
  • There you will find two new CME activities- Patient Harassment and Sexual Harassment


If you are not part of TCCN’s Malpractice Program with Curi, please reach out to your malpractice carrier as they may have a class available as well. 

 

We encourage you to check out Curi’s Learning Center for other CME offerings.

In Case You Missed It (please use the links below to review)


TCCN Requirements


TCCN Resources


Community Updates

Questions?

We are here for you. Please reach out to your TCCN Provider Relations Representative contact@tccn-choa.org with any questions.