September 16, 2022

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On Thursday, Sept. 15th, Children's sent out a communication co-written by TCCN to all independent primary care physicians regarding the recent surge in patient volumes in both the outpatient and ED settings. This communication includes the following resources:

• Fever patient information sheet
• Suggested return to school/childcare messaging
• Monkeypox guidance
• Flu and COVID-19 vaccination guidance

TCCN will be following up with additional guidance and resources over the coming weeks as we prepare for flu season, so please stay tuned for more updates.

Click here to read the full communication from Children's and TCCN

Children's has sent out the latest edition of MedBytes to members of the Children's Professional Staff. Today's communication includes the following important updates and more:

• CDC Health Advisory: Severe Respiratory Illnesses Associated with Rhinoviruses and/or Enteroviruses Including EV-D68 - Multistate
• Children’s to Temporarily Adjust Walk-in Hours for X-ray Services at Scottish Rite Hospital Effective Sept. 19
• Pulmonology and Sleep Clinics in Alpharetta are Temporarily Closed
• Appointments for Children with Post-Infectious Disease Available Oct. 6
• Coming Soon: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Cardiology

Click here to read MedBytes

The Children’s Care Network is pleased to sponsor the 2022 Children’s Annual Professional Staff Meeting on Thursday, September 22nd 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 2022 meeting attendance requirement. Please note that this meeting will not be recorded. Come and enjoy free food and drinks! 

As this will be the first opportunity for many of you to network with your primary care and subspecialist colleagues in some time, 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 for some time and we strongly encourage pediatricians in particular to attend! 

In addition, there will be TCCN and Children’s updates presented along with awards recognizing physician leaders such as the TCCN William F. Meyers, M.D. Quality Award. 

Please come and network with TCCN practices from the following subspecialties:

• Allergy and Immunology
• Behavioral and Mental Health
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology
• Neurology
• Otolaryngology
• Otology
• Pulmonology
• Urology

If you have not sent your RSVP and are planning to attend, please complete this online registration. Please register by this Friday so that we can ensure an accurate headcount for food.

We believe that part of our strength as a network comes from being physician-led, and the engagement of both seasoned and emerging physician leaders has been critical to our success as a pediatric clinically integrated network.

Over the coming years, we expect to have several seats open on the TCCN Board of Directors, as well as our TCCN Committees. This is a great opportunity for more of our member physicians to take a leadership role in the network as we move into the next phase of our development.

We have several TCCN Committees that need more physician representatives:

• Quality Committee (oversight of network quality strategy and programming)
• Primary Care Advisory Council (advises on issues impacting primary care and Children's/TCCN primary care support strategy)
• Finance and Contracting Committee (oversight of contracting, budget, and distributions)
• Network Management and Strategy Committee (oversight of network strategy implementation, membership requirements and value-added services)

We hold TCCN Board meetings monthly on Wednesdays at 6:30pm. Committee meetings are held either bi-monthly or quarterly on weeknights at 6:30pm. Most Board and Committee meetings are conducted virtually, but we expect to resume some in-person meetings in 2023.

If you are a physician interested in serving on the TCCN Board and/or one of the TCCN Committees, or you would like to nominate a TCCN colleague, please let us know by responding to this email by Friday, September 30^th.

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a lifelong learning and guided practice model that revolutionizes medical education and exponentially increases workforce capacity to provide best practice specialty care and reduce health disparities through its hub-and spoke knowledge sharing networks. Children's has been providing Behavioral and Mental Health education in multiple cohorts since March 2021, including programs on Depression, Anxiety, Autism, and more.

These Project ECHO programs directly support TCCN's behavioral health strategy and quality improvement efforts, and many of you have taken advantage of these offerings.

The BMH Project ECHO team is now evaluating topics for 2023 and beyond, and they want to better understand what the most critical behavioral health topics are for your practice.

Please take 3 minutes to complete the BMH Needs Assessment/Survey to provide feedback on topics to cover as well as the best times to hold the weekly sessions.

Completion of Amerigroup Value-Based Agreement

The Children’s Care Network is pleased to let our members know that TCCN has recently signed a new value-based contract with Amerigroup. TCCN member providers currently provide services to over 80,000 Amerigroup covered lives. This arrangement will allow for opportunities in shared savings and improvement in quality metrics for the Amerigroup population. Further details on quality initiatives will be forthcoming.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions based on responses we have received regarding participation in the new Amerigroup agreement:

Do I need to do anything to participate in the Amerigroup value-based agreement?

All TCCN primary care and subspecialty practices who hold an Amerigroup base agreement have been automatically included in the value-based agreement. There is no additional action you need to take or cost for participating in the value-based agreement.

Will this impact my Amerigroup rates?

The value-based agreement will not impact the rates you are currently being paid. TCCN is engaged with Amerigroup to discuss base contracting, and we will share more information later this year.

What do I need to do for my practice to be successful in this value-based agreement?

We have programming developed for the Amerigroup contracted HEDIS measures and will share more information about our plans for interventions in the coming weeks.

MAGMutual Risk Mitigation Report

MAGMutual has developed a Risk Mitigation Report for Pediatrics to highlight trends in losses and what pediatric providers and practices can do to mitigate these risks. Please share with your staff and discuss at your next practice meeting.

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MAGMutual CME Course Opportunity

MAGMutual has released two 1-hour CME courses on “Sexual Misconduct” that fulfills the new GA license requirement for HB458 which became effective January 1, 2022, and requires that each Physician complete a course in “professional boundaries and sexual misconduct in medical practice” before renewing their GA medical license. Please see below for the links to the 2 classes.

• Sexual Misconduct: Strategies to Minimize Risk (Part 1)
• Sexual Misconduct: Strategies to Minimize Risk (Part 2)

If you are not with MAGMutual, then you should reach out to your malpractice carrier and see if they have a similar course. If they do not, then MAG and GPPA have a program as well – please see link below. 

https://gppa.memberclicks.net/hb485   

Link to register for the recording and get CME credit. Non-members cost $100.

Please contact your carrier, legal advisor or the Georgia Composite Medical Board with any questions. TCCN does not monitor all changes to legal requirements and does not provide legal advice.

Congratulations and thank you! We have demonstrated significant improvement with our Anthem contracted measure of Appropriate Testing for Children with Pharyngitis. Earlier in the year, we sent our practice scorecards and requested practices to review the scorecard and look for areas of improvement within their office. Thank you for all your hard work on this measure!

Our staff has been working with Anthem over the course of the year. Through our investigation we were able to demonstrate to Anthem that 84% of non-compliant patients, although attributed to a TCCN provider, were not in fact seen by a TCCN provider. Not only did this show that our network providers have been doing a great job with this measure, but it also provided us with valuable perspective on ways that your practices might better communicate with parents and leverage your services to reduce urgent/emergency services and thereby the inappropriate use of antibiotics and spread of sickness.

Click here to read the full communication

Keep an eye out for our September Quality Steps newsletter coming soon.

Siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely to have developmental delays, speech problems, and autism. To help monitor and mitigate those concerns, Marcus Autism Center has created a new clinic specifically to meet the needs of these children. Children ages 6 months to 24 months who are the siblings of children with ASD qualify for this clinic.

Please download the flyer linked here and share this opportunity with any families of children eligible for this clinic. For more information, please contact Stormi White, PsyD and Natalie Brane, CCC-SLP at [email protected] or 404.785.8501.

3rd Annual Pediatric Brain Health Symposium

October 22-23, 2022 (MOC Credit Available)

Event Details:

Saturday, October 22, 2022 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Sunday October 23, 2022, 8:00 AM - 12:15 PM

Hybrid Event - offered virtually and at Children's Support Center    

Course Description:  

The 3rd Annual Pediatric Brain Health Symposium will provide an overview of epilepsy, headache/concussions, neuromuscular diseases and neurogenetic disorders with actionable recommendations for clinicians to enact in their practice.

Target Audience:

General pediatricians, advanced practice providers, nurses, pediatric neurologists, neuropsychologists, neurosurgeons, residents, and medical students are all invited to attend.

Click here for more details and to register

Children's Urgent Care Update

Urgent Care Locations:

• Open 365 days/year
• Monday through Friday: 11am to 9pm
• Saturday and Sunday: 9am to 9pm
• Holidays: 9am to 7pm
• Hamilton Creek Urgent Care opens on July 26, 2022
• Cherokee Urgent Care opens on September 7, 2022

Hours of Operation Change:

So that we may provide the best care for our patients, Children’s will adjust weekend hours at all Urgent Care locations and holiday hours at some locations

• Hamilton Creek will open on July 26th, with new weekend hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

As of September 1:

• All Urgent Care locations will adjust weekend hours on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to our new hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• We are altering the number of open Urgent Care locations on the holidays (New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day (MLK), Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas)
• Children’s at Chamblee-Brookhaven, Hudson Bridge, Forsyth, Town Center and Satellite Boulevard Urgent Care locations will be open on holidays.
• Children’s at Cherokee, Hamilton Creek, and North Point Urgent Care locations will be closed on holidays.

For more on Urgent Care Locations and Scope, refer to July 29th Roundup

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

TCCN Requirements

• June 2022 TCCN State of the Union Recording and Attestation
• Spring 2022 Clinical Quality Forum Recording and Attestation
• Effective August 1st: 2-Week Data Submission Requirement

TCCN Resources

• TCCN COVID-19 Vaccine Toolkit
• TCCN COVID-19 Diagnosis and Isolation Algorithm
• Announcement of New Malpractice Broker
• Endocrinology Referral Guide
• Nephrology Referral Guideline

Community Updates

• Monkeypox Community Practice Tip Sheet and CDC Page for Healthcare Workers
• Bilirubin Level Testing and Phototherapy Vendors
• Formula Shortage Resources
• CDC Health Advisory on Parechovirus

We are here for you. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.