Now Available: 2011/12 National Survey of Children’s Health State Profiles
State-by-state snapshots of new data from the 2011/12 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) are now accessible on the Data Resource Center (DRC) website. Start browsing the new data now.
Webinar: How To Use Data to Improve Care Delivery—April 25, 2013
Data on children's health can be a powerful tool to educate stakeholders, inform decision makers, and motivate and track improvement of children's health care delivery in practice. Faculty for this webinar will describe how to access and use valuable national and state data sets to improve care at their practice, including those available through the recently updated Medical Home Data Portal. This webinar is co-sponsored by the National Center for Medical Home Implementation and the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. Register Today!
Children’s Electronic Health Record Format Released
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the Children’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) Format. The format is not an actual EHR, but provides the functional requirements that an EHR should meet to perform optimally for the particular needs of children (eg, newborn screening tests, immunizations, well child and preventive care, information for children with special health care needs). It includes more than 700 requirements organized by 21 topic areas.
Gabe’s Care Map
Created by Ms. Cristin Lind, a parent whose child with special needs receives subspecialty care at Boston Children’s Hospital, Gabe’s Care Map is an illustration of all of the providers and services involved in the complex care of her son’s health. The Care Map was featured in an article on Huffington Post, as well as featured in a live video conversation. This effort to publically discuss Gabe’s care can help families work with their providers to improve outcomes for their children with special needs through improved care coordination.
Help ensure that every child and youth has a medical home!
A care notebook is an organizing tool for families to help keep track of important information, as well as maintain the lines of communication between the many providers and services that help care for a child and their family. NCMHI has posted a variety of care plan templates here!
Toolkit on Creating Patient and Family Advisory Councils
The National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) has created a toolkit for pediatric providers on how to effectively engage family perspectives by creating patient and family advisory councils. Practices that encourage, value and utilize family perspectives in planning for high-quality medical care can accelerate their path toward becoming truly patient- and family-centered.
Updated AAP Medical Home Coding Fact Sheet
This coding fact sheet highlights most of the commonly reported codes for medical home-related services in a pediatric practice.
The Roles of Practice Facilitators and Care Managers
Two potential members of the primary care team—practice facilitators and care managers—play distinct roles in redesigning and improving care delivery, as described in this paper (PDF) published in the Annals of Family Medicine. Facilitators assist practices with coordinating their quality improvement activities while care managers provide direct patient care and help patients navigate the system. These important, complementary roles aim to help primary care practices deliver coordinated, accessible, comprehensive, and patient-centered care.
Care Coordination: Improving Children's Access to Health Services
The Child Health and Development Institute released a report that discusses how care coordination connects children to medical and community services to address their health and developmental needs. This report reviews the findings from a three-year demonstration project that used community-based care coordinators to link children identified by their primary care health care providers as needing services to those services.
Customizing Health Homes for Children with Serious Behavioral Health Challenges
The health home provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides an opportunity for states to improve the quality and cost of care for children with mental health conditions. This resource paper prepared for the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides a rationale as to why health homes under the ACA should be customized for children and youth with serious behavioral health challenges. It offers approaches to health home customization based on intensive care coordination models.
New Scholarships for Parent Support Provider Certification
A Certified Parent Support Provider™ is a person who can articulate lessons learned from his/her own lived experience parenting a child and has specialized training to assist and empower families raising children who experience emotional, developmental, behavioral, substance use, or mental health concerns. There are new scholarships available to help cover the cost of national certification. Visit www.certification.ffcmh.org/apply for more details.
New Patient-Centered Specialty Practice Recognition Program
The National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) has launched a recognition program for specialty practices that successfully coordinate care with their primary care colleagues and each other. Additionally, the program addresses reducing the duplication of tests, measuring performance and improving communication with patients. Specific questions and inquiries can be sent to pcsp@ncqa.org.
Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems: Building Health through Integration
Deadline for Applications: April 26, 2013
The purpose of this grant program is to improve the physical, social, and emotional development of children during infancy and early childhood; to eliminate disparities; and to increase access to early childhood services by engaging in systems development and collective impact approaches that improve the quality and availability of early childhood services at both the state and local levels. This program will provide funding during Federal fiscal years 2013–2015 for up to 57 grantees. Applicants may apply for a ceiling amount of up to $140,000 per year.
View Full Announcement
For a detailed listing of funding opportunities, click here.
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Webinar: Best Practices in Billing and Coding
April 11, 2013—1 to 2pm (Eastern)
Available for a fee at registration
This webinar, as part of the APEX Practice Services Webinar Series from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), will provide tools and techniques to improve billing and collections, including how successful pediatric practices handle patient collections, as well as how to create an action plan to improve revenue cycle management.
Additional Information
Moving Forward with Patient- and Family-Centered Care—Partnerships for Quality and Safety
April 15-18, 2013—Annapolis, MD
This Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care seminar provides three and a half days of sessions designed to help administrative leaders, board members, physicians, nurses, staff, and patients and families become effective agents for patient- and family-centered change in their organizations. Participants will gain the knowledge and skills to begin to transform health care within hospitals, ambulatory care settings, and community.
Additional Information
34th Annual Conference on Pediatric Health Care—Scoring Big For Children's Health
April 17-20, 2013—Orlando, FL
The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) annual conference includes forums to learn about the business of NAPNAP, the future of PNPs, health policy, and other professional issues.
Additional Information
Webinar: Financing Family and Youth Services
April 18, 2013—1 to 2:30pm (Eastern)
This webinar will focus on ways for communities to incorporate family and youth peer support services, including educating parents and providers on the benefits of health homes, culturally competent health care navigators, and increasing engagement of families in least costly and effective care closest to home. This webinar is part of the 2013 National Topical Webinar Series from the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health at the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development.
Additional Information
5th International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health (IMICH)—Strong Communities, Healthy Children
April 19-21, 2013—Portland, OR
Sponsored by the Canadian Paediatric Society and the AAP, this meeting focuses on innovative clinical care models and community-based public health approaches for children and youth in First Nations, Inuit, Métis, American Indian, Alaska Native and other Indigenous communities around the world.
Additional Information
A Cultural Competency Training of Trainers Institute
April 22-26, 2013—Seattle, WA
The Cross Cultural Health Care Program is offering this 5-day institute for health care organizations to develop and deliver training programs focused on patient-centered care and culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
Additional Information
The Patient Experience: Improving Safety, Efficiency, and CAHPS Through Patient-Centered Care
April 23-24, 2013—Boston, MA
This Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) seminar will equip health care professionals with concrete tools and a roadmap for integration of new practices into existing processes. This seminar will teach attendees how to use practical techniques to put the emphasis on a patient's care experience—through respect, partnership, shared decision making, well-coordinated transitions, and efficiency.
Additional Information
Webinar: How to Use Data to Improve Care Delivery
April 25, 2013—12 to 1pm (Central)
Co-sponsored by the National Center for Medical Home Implementation and the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement initiative, this webinar will review how children's health data can be a powerful tool to educate stakeholders, inform decision makers, and motivate and track improvement of children's health care delivery in practice. Faculty for this webinar will describe how to access and use valuable national and state data sets, including those available through the Medical Home Data Portal, an online resource with state-by-state summaries and across-state comparisons on children's access to a medical home using standardized data from the National Survey of Children's Health and National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. Participants will learn how to use data to improve care at their practice by hearing the experience of faculty involved in a state CHIPRA demonstration project.
Additional Information/Registration
Health Disparities Research at the Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Disability: A National Conference
April 25-26, 2013—Washington, DC
This conference is part of Project Intersect: Addressing Health Disparities at the Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Disability. It is intended to bring together researchers, advocates, and policy makers in racial and ethnic disparities and disability-related disparities to learn about barriers to health care and health promotion for people with disabilities in underserved racial and ethnic groups and discuss priorities for future research and action.
Additional Information
Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability & Diversity—Being in Community
April 29-30, 2013—Honolulu, HI
This conference embraces and respects voices from “diverse” perspective across numerous areas, including: voices from persons representing all disability areas; experiences of family members and supporters; responsiveness to diverse cultural and language differences; evidence of researchers and academics studying diversity and disability; and action plans to meet human and social needs in a globalized world.
Additional Information
3rd Annual Advancing Quality Improvement Science for Children’s Health Care Research Conference
May 3, 2013—Washington, DC
This Academic Pediatric Association Conference will focus on state-of-the-art methods for pediatric healthcare quality improvement (QI) research and bring together leaders and innovators in pediatric QI research.
Additional Information
Pediatric Telehealth Colloquium
May 5-7, 2013—Austin, TX
Sponsored by the American Telemedicine Association, this colloquium will feature pediatric telehealth presentations on a peer-reviewed educational track with continuing education credits.
Additional Information
Webinar: How to Incorporate Best Practices in Family-Centered Care in Your Practice
May 29, 2013—12 to 1pm (Central)
Sponsored by the National Center for Medical Home Implementation, this free webinar will provide participants with a clear description of family-centered care and highlight case studies that showcase effective strategies in delivering that care through practice improvements such as greater use of health information technology, enhanced access to medical professional staff outside regular office hours, feedback mechanisms capturing patient/family experience with care, and including families on advisory boards and as staff.
Additional Information/Registration
Transforming the Primary Care Practice
June18-20, 2013—Denver, CO
In this three-day course, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) will equip health care professionals with tools to adapt practices to the realities of the Affordable Care Act with respect to health information technology, shared decision making, and family-centered care using a team approach.
Additional Information
Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative Annual Fall Conference
October 13-15, 2013—Bethesda, MD
The Community Connections In The Medical Neighborhood: The Future of the Primary Care Medical Home conference will focus on the medical home's key role within the larger health care system, including behavioral health, specialty care, acute and post-acute care, public health, and community and social supports.
Additional Information
For a full listing of Upcoming Conferences and Events, click here
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April is Autism Awareness Month
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is pleased to join with other child health organizations in recognizing April as Autism Awareness Month. During April, parents, caregivers, and health care providers can visit www.aap.org/autism for free samples from the Autism: Caring For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Resource Toolkit For Clinicians and to preview chapters from the parent book, Autism Spectrum Disorders: What Every Parent Needs to Know.
April is National Minority Health Month
The Office of Minority Health and partners across the nation are celebrating National Minority Health Month by raising awareness about health disparities that continue to affect racial and ethnic minorities. This year's theme, Advance Health Equity Now: Uniting Our Communities to Bring Health Care Coverage to All, is a call to improve the health of our communities and increase access to quality, affordable health care for everyone. Visit the Office of Minority Health Web site throughout April for Minority Health Month materials, including the official poster, a calendar of local events, and a community engagement toolkit.
Help ensure that every child and youth has a medical home!
The NCMHI has published a new edition of the MedicalHomes@Work Spotlight on Child Health Issues with a focus on culturally effective care for children and youth within the medical home model. Discover strategies and practical tools for pediatric providers, families, and patients here!
Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) Demonstrations Evaluation
The first in a series of reports that present analytic findings from the national evaluation of CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant Program is available online. Early accomplishments, challenges, and lessons learned are reviewed from four States pursuing practice-level quality measurement: Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
State Innovation Models (SIM) Awards for Health Care System Improvements
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the first recipients of the SIM initiative awards. Twenty-five states will be working to design and implement improvements to their health care systems focused on people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Model Testing awards will fund 6 states (Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont) in implementing their plans for health care delivery transformation; the National Academy for State Health Policy launched an online resource on these six Models that includes a crosswalk of each state's payment methods, medical home requirements, performance metrics, and more. The remaining 19 states will develop their State Health Care Innovation Plans to guide comprehensive health care transformation.
HHS Launches Web Site and Materials on Health Insurance Marketplaces
HHS began using the term “health insurance marketplaces” in place of the term “health insurance exchanges” in 2012. In January 2013, HHS launched a new public education effort and Web site that features resources to help consumers navigate each state’s Marketplace efforts. Open enrollment in the Marketplace begins Oct. 1, 2013, with coverage to begin Jan. 1, 2014. In April 2013, CMS released a proposed rule outlining standards that Navigators in Marketplaces must meet; navigators are organizations that will provide unbiased information to consumers about health insurance and public programs including the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Implementing Medicaid Health Homes in New York: Early Experience
The latest report from the Medicaid Institute at United Hospital Fund details the early stages of implementing New York State’s health homes initiative, including determining payment rates, building relationships, and measuring quality.
University of Kansas Hospital first to offer neonatal medical home
The Neonatal Medical Home is a new area of the University of Kansas hospital where children with medically complex problems from their premature birth or other causes can receive care from a variety of pediatric specialists in one location. Neonatologists provide primary care for medically complex children through age five.
Maryland Launches Online Resource Database for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs
In Maryland, over one third of families of children with special needs report that they cannot easily access needed community-based services. In order to improve access to information, Maryland’s Office for Genetics and People with Special Health Care Needs created the Maryland Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Resource Locator.
Help ensure that every child and youth has a medical home!
The NCMHI Web site includes State Pages which provide information about medical home-related projects and initiatives in each state, along with links to key organizations and local resources for providers, families, and patients. Access the State Pages here!
Few Pediatric Practices are Prepared for Medical Home Certification
The February 2013 issue of Pediatrics included an article “Readiness of Primary Care Practices for Medical Home Certification” that provides an analysis of practices serving pediatric populations and found that they met less than 40 percent of the elements required to become a medical home. The abstract is available here. A subscription to Pediatrics is required to access the full article.
Fewer Practices Engage Patients In Quality Improvement
A survey published in Health Affairs found that 29 percent of practices involved patients and families as advisors and 32 percent involved patients in teams or councils in order to improve quality. The survey, conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians' Collaborative Care Research Network and the National Committee on Quality Assurance, received responses from 123 practices in 22 states.
For additional information on National Initiatives, click here
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American Academy of Pediatrics
Reshaping Pediatric Practice
This article published in Pediatrics calls for the necessary redesign of pediatric practice, particularly focusing on elements of a family-centered medical home which includes networking with other practices, planning care in partnership with the patient and family, and supporting self-management.
New Toolkit on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Prenatal exposure to alcohol is one of the leading preventable causes of birth defects, mental retardation, and neurodevelopmental disorders. The Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Toolkit was developed by the Academy’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Program—funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities—to raise awareness, promote surveillance and screening, and ensure that all affected children receive appropriate and timely interventions.
New AAP Clinical Report on Oral Health
The Oral Health Care for Children With Developmental Disabilities clinical report describes the effect that poor oral health has on children with developmental disabilities as well as the importance of partnerships between the pediatric medical and dental homes.
The Community Pediatrics: Navigating the Intersection of Medicine, Public Health, and Social Determinants of Children’s Health defines community pediatrics, emphasizes the importance of social determinants of health, and promotes partnerships with public health to improve population child health.
New Speakers Kit on Early Childhood Systems
AAP has consolidated resources developed for the Building Bridges Among Health & Early Childhood Systems project partners in order to encourage other state teams to help guide efforts to improve early brain and child development within state early childhood systems.
Child & Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI)
Children with Special Health Care Needs in California: A Profile of Key Issues
A recent report from CAHMI and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health (LPFCH) explores the health and well-being of California's children with special health care needs (CSHCN) population with a particular emphasis on the role of the medical home and coordination of care. The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health also put together a video which accompanies the report.
New Pediatric Health Care Quality Measurement and Improvement Portal
The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC), a project of CAHMI, has released a new Quality Portal. The portal is a comprehensive online resource regarding pediatric quality of care and improvement.
New Healthy Tomorrows Grantees Announced
The Maternal and Child Health Bureau awarded three new Healthy Tomorrows grants in March to organizations in Hawaii, California, and Missouri. These five-year grants provide funding to improve maternal and child health through community-based initiatives focused on prevention and access to health services. The projects focus on various topics including care coordination, child abuse and neglect, and child development. Full project summaries can be found on the Healthy Tomorrows Web site.
Epilepsy Foundation Consumer Needs Assessment Survey
Deadline: April 30, 2013
The Epilepsy Foundation is conducting a Consumer Needs Assessment survey to provide them with valuable information about the needs of parents/guardians of minors under the age of 19, providers/caregivers, and persons with epilepsy. The result will help guide programs for people living with epilepsy.
Help Me Grow National Announces New Web Site
Help Me Group National, a system that helps to connect at-risk children with the services that they need, has launched a new Web site, including an interactive map of HMG affiliate states.
GeneticsinPrimaryCare.org — Your Source for Genetic Information and Support
The Genetics in Primary Care Institute (GPCI) strives to increase primary care provider knowledge and skills in providing genetic-based services, and with the launch of GeneticsinPrimaryCare.org the GPCI aims to provide a clearinghouse for all information, tools, and resources related to improving provision of genetic medicine for pediatric primary care providers. GPCI is a cooperative agreement between the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Resources & Services Administration, the Maternal & Child Health Bureau and the AAP.
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Frequently Asked Questions Spotlight—State-level Medical Home Projects
The National Center for Medical Home Implementation (NCMHI) recently launched the new Frequently Asked Questions page that highlights the top technical assistance requests received by NCMHI staff. Each month, one of the questions and respective answers will be highlighted in the NCMHI e-Newsletter. Feel free to pass along to others to encourage the implementation of the medical home model.
Where do I go to find out information about medical home projects in my state?
The AAP and the NCMHI do not recognize, certify, or accredit practices as medical homes. However, the NCMHI does track projects and initiatives related to medical home that occur across the country. This information can be found in the State Pages section and on the NCMHI National Demonstration Projects & State Initiatives page on the NCMHI Web site. The Medical Home and Patient-Centered Care state pages developed by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) may also be a useful resource. These pages track state efforts to advance medical homes for Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) participants. Additional information can be found on the Pilots and Demonstrations page of the PCPCC Web site.
For information on practices that have successfully completed a recognition or accreditation program, visit that program's Web site. The NCQA hosts a Web page that allows you to search for practices by state that have completed their Patient Centered Medical Home recognition program. Remember that these practices have been recognized by the NCQA program, which the NCMHI is not affiliated with and does not formally endorse. The NCMHI Web site provides information about various programs that are currently available or are under development on the Medical Home Recognition and Accreditation Programs page.
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