Ask An Expert! To Test or Not to Test: The Benefits or Potential Harms of Allergen IGE Testing |
This month’s TCCN Spring 2022 Clinical Quality Forum (CQF) featured Dr. Gerald Lee and Dr. Brian Vickery in an informative presentation on The Benefits and Potential Harms of Food Allergen IgE Testing. We have highlighted some of the Q&As asked during the event:
Ask the Expert: Dr. Gerald Lee and Dr. Brian Vickery
There has been a lot of misinformation when it comes to allergies, eczema, peanut allergies, and childhood allergy testing. Dr. Lee talked about how to reduce a childhood allergy profile; early testing and the recommendation not to eliminate potential allergy-inducing foods at a young age. Introducing foods early and reducing allergy testing can also help eliminate healthcare waste and expenditures for EpiPens; skin testing; and medications.
Dr. Lee went on to add that now we have good evidence that early introduction can prevent food allergies, and we can reverse food allergy rise in the state of Georgia to give our patients high quality evidenced based info with their child’s best interest at heart.
Ask the Expert
Q: Are you saying we shouldn’t test for allergies?
It’s not a yes or no answer because the test results can yield a false positive and can’t classify your status accurately. It’s not how the tests work. Doctors can get bad info that can lead us in the wrong direction. Our goal is to help parents with informed decision making when it comes to testing.
Q: Why has the number of reactions increased?
Anytime a disease gets more common it’s due to increased awareness and testing, which leads to an increase in incidence. The best studies show that in fact peanut allergies and allergic diseases in general and autoimmune disease; heart disease and depression – all inflammatory diseases driven by environmental factors are increasing across the board.
Q: Has the LEAP study made an impact on that increase?
In the countries that have adopted the guidelines widely; we are starting to see changes. For example, in Australia it’s very different, because they introduce foods like peanuts early. The implementation is lagging n the U.S., which is why we are doing this education. When we write new guidelines, it takes a while. There is latency and barriers to implementation. Education like this will help and the sooner we can provide more, the sooner the cases will decrease.
Additional Resources: Following is the link to the video recording and a PDF of the meeting slides.
Watching the video and submitting the attestation will fulfill the 2022 educational requirement that at least one physician from each practice must attend/watch at least 1 of the 2 Clinical Quality Forums planned for this year.
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2022 Distribution Announcement |
More exciting news! Thanks to the hard work by our members, TCCN is now ready to make another distribution from our shared savings and care management revenues generated by our value-based contracts with payors.
In 2021, TCCN received 2020 shared savings from WellCare in the amount of $2 million dollars. In addition, for the first time TCCN fully covered our current year operating expenses in 2021, which resulted in a budgetary surplus. At the recommendation of the Finance and Contracting Committee, the TCCN Board of Directors voted to contribute a portion of the funds toward repayment of our past operating losses. After the contributions, TCCN has $2 million available to distribute to member practices.
The Board recognizes that all TCCN physicians working together to improve the quality of healthcare for our entire pediatric population resulted in the network’s continued success in moving the needle network-wide. This further strengthens TCCN’s value proposition for quality. As a result, the TCCN Board once again decided to fund the equivalent of a 2021 dues payment for all current members. Therefore, you and all other primary care and specialty practices did not receive an invoice for 2021 dues for your current physicians. In addition, all physicians in TCCN (as of Dec. 31, 2021) will also receive a portion of the surplus funds.
As in past years, additional distributions are being made to WellCare participating primary care practices to reward them for meeting our goals under the WellCare shared savings metrics. Those distributions will be based on their total number of WellCare 2020 member months and BMI Coding performance. TCCN specialists are also receiving a distribution calculated on their portion of the distribution fund. We will share more details on how we plan to shift further towards distributing incentives based on performance later this year.
Member practices will begin to receive their checks the week of April 25th along with a report that will detail how the check amounts were calculated. You will receive a 1099 from Children’s in 2023 that will reflect the distribution check amount and dues paid on your behalf, so please keep the reports for your 2022 tax records. If you have any questions about your check or the report, please reach out to us at contact@tccn-choa.org or 404-785-0101.
Thank you for your continued engagement in the TCCN quality program. TCCN has achieved significant quality benchmarks in our short life. We look forward to seeing further strides forward in 2022!
Brad Weselman, MD
Executive Director
The Children’s Care Network
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Anthem Recall Reports: Well Child 3-6 Years |
Our continued mission at TCCN is to provide support and guidance to our member practices. Thank you for your continued support in providing the best possible care for our patients and families.
At this time, we are sending your practice your Anthem Well Child gap report for children 3-6 years old. This list includes patients between the ages of 3-6 in the current measurement year who have not been in for a well child visit. Your recall list includes patients that are either past due for their well child visit, due in 30 days, or due in 60 days.
The Well Child 3-6 year visit is an important HEDIS measure as well as a TCCN contracted measure. We strongly encourage you to use this list as a helpful tool to reach out to patients that still have care gaps. There is still time to encourage patients to get caught up on needed well child visits before the end of the year.
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HeLP Medical-Legal Partnership Video Series |
Imagine a child with asthma needing to go to the hospital repeatedly not because the family isn't following their doctor's directions but because they are unable to get the mold in their apartment, a known trigger for asthma, remediated after repeated requests to the landlord.
Well, we have a solution!
It is estimated that 50 million people in the US need legal care to be healthy. The Health Law Partnership (HeLP) is a partnership between Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia State University College of Law and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. We are known as a medical-legal partnership (MLP) where doctors and lawyers (yes, you read that right) work together to address healthcare disparities.
One of our goals is to improve access to care for the patients at Children's through inter-professional collaboration. We have hospital-based offices at all 3 of Children’s campuses. We also have an office at the Center for Advanced Pediatrics as well as one on the campus of Georgia State University College of Law. HeLP’s staff work to help our patients with civil legal problems that may contribute to poor health and exacerbate health inequities.
If I piqued your interest, view our short videos so you can learn about the other legal services our MLP provides and how we may be able to assist our mutual patients/clients. You can also call us at 404-785-2005.
Click the links below to view the HeLP Video Series!
Robert Pettignano, MD
Medical Director – The Health Law Partnership (HeLP)
Pam Kraidler, Esq.
Legal Director - The Health Law Partnership (HeLP)
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MagMutual CME Course Opportunity |
MAGMutual has just 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.
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.
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.
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CDC Quarantine and Isolation Calculator |
The calculator provides important information about what precautions people with COVID-19 and their close contacts can take to protect loved ones and prevent COVID-19 in their communities.
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CDC Guidance: When to Self-Test for COVID-19 |
Self-tests for COVID-19 give rapid results and can be taken anywhere, regardless of your vaccination status or whether or not you have symptoms.
When To Take an At-Home COVID-19 Test:
- Test at least 5 days after you were exposed to someone with COVID-19. If you test negative for COVID-19, consider testing again 1 to 2 days after your first test
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Staying Updated: Find Additional COVID-19 Resources on these Sites! |
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Upcoming Events: Mark Your Calendars!
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Register Today! Children's Physician Outreach Webinar-
May 11th!
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Physician Outreach Webinar: Pediatric Upper Extremity Sports Injuries
Time: May 11th, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Anthony Egger
Join us on May 11, 2022 from 12:00-1:00pm for the monthly webinar series hosted by Children's Physician Outreach and the Physician Education department. This month, Dr. Anthony Egger will be discussing Pediatric Upper Extremity Sports Injuries.
May 11, 2022, 12:00 PM-1:00 PM
Virtually via Zoom
CME Available
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Camp Strong4Life Summer 2022 Registration Open! |
Camp Strong4Life 2022: June 19-24 at Camp Twin Lakes in Winder, GA.
Camp Strong4Life is for kids 8 to 12 years old who are above a healthy weight (BMI greater than the 85th percentile) and provides a unique opportunity to help empower kids to make simple nutrition and activity changes and build resilience through a traditional summer camp experience.
While the overnight camp lasts only a week, we provide an experience that teaches healthy habits to last a lifetime. The program provides ongoing resources to help families raise healthy, safe and resilient kids.
Click here to visit the Camp Strong4Life website and get additional details about the program!
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The Children's Care Network
"Great pediatric doctors and leading children's hospitals improving healthcare and the health of our children, because our children deserve it!"
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