Institute for Disability Studies
Family Health Notes
July 2016
Inside this issue:
1) Special Education Law and Advocacy Conference – July 26, Jackson
2) Free SibShops Facilitator and Demonstration Training – August 4-5, Raymond
3) Family Voices of Mississippi
4) Changes in the Affordable Care Act
5) Need to Learn More About EPSDT?
6) The Complex Child E-Magazine
7) New Pediatric-to-Adult Transition Tools Released by American College of Physicians
8) Disability 101 Site Has New Information on the ABLE Act
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1) Special Education Law and Advocacy Conference – July 26, Jackson
The Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities and the Mississippi Parent Training and Information Center will host a Special Education Law Conference on Thurs., July 26, 2016, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Mississippi Sports Museum Trustmark Conference Center at 1152 Lakeland Drive in Jackson. The conference speaker, Matt Cohen, is well known for his work in special education law. He has lectured nationally on a wide variety of special education topics, as well as on mental health and confidentiality law and has authored numerous articles on these subjects. Conference topics will include an overview of IDEA including recent case law and other hot topics in special education (discipline, transition, and response to intervention/tier process). Attorneys can receive 7.5 CLEs including one ethics hour. CEUs will also be available for teachers. For more information or to register, visit http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event;jsessionid=5886D3DBFD785DF3E033A7444250B50B.worker_registrant?llr=julfnscab&oeidk=a07ecqa3wgj7bd12951.
2) Free SibShops Facilitator and Demonstration Training – August 4-5, Raymond
Sibshops are for siblings (ages 8-13) of kids with disabilities. Facilitators can be service providers, family members, or others. The Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities and the Mississippi Parent Training and Information Center will host the SibShops Facilitator and Demonstration Training on Thurs., Aug. 5 and Fri., Aug. 6, at Eagle Ridge Conference Center in Raymond. Don Meyer, creator of the lively SibShops for young brothers and sisters of kids with special needs, will provide the training. The main goals of the workshop are to train new facilitators and parents, providers and others about ever-changing issues across the lifespan. For more information or to register, visit http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event;jsessionid=3D1AF5E64DE267ECCC3CE9EE60FE0384.worker_registrant?llr=julfnscab&oeidk=a07eco22d0797c996b4.
3) Family Voices of Mississippi
Do you have a child with a special health care need? Want to learn more about Title V? Do you want to affect change in health care? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you should join the Family Voices of Mississippi board. For more information, contact the Mississippi Family2Family Parent Coordinator at 601.432.6929 or at ksmith@ihl.state.ms.us.
4) Changes in the Affordable Care Act
The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued some new rules for health plans sold in the federal exchange next year. These changes will give consumers more information about health plans and make it easier to compare plans. These changes apply only to the 38 states, including Mississippi, using the federal exchange. What do parents of children with disabilities need to know about these changes? The National Center for Family Professional Partnerships, a project of Family Voices, has developed a tip sheet. For a copy of the tip sheet, visit http://www.fv-ncfpp.org/blog/what-parents-children-disabilities-need-know-about-changes-aca/.
5) Need to Learn More About EPSDT?
Medicaid was amended in 1967 to include the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit because it was discovered that military draftees and children in Head Start were being diagnosed with disabilities or chronic illnesses that could have been prevented with regular health screenings. The Catalyst Center has published information on EPSDT that explains this benefit and provides details on the covered services. For more information, visit http://cahpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/section12.pdf?utm_source=nwsltr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monthly.
6) The Complex Child E-Magazine
Need information on therapies, medical issues, equipment, insurance or education. The Complex Child is a monthly online magazine written by parents of children with special healthcare needs and disabilities. It is intended to provide medical information, along with personal experiences, in simple language that other parents can understand. Articles are on a wide variety of topics ranging from basic information on medical conditions and treatments to advice on how to appeal insurance company denials. The Complex Child is free—the new edition and all archived editions and articles—but is only available online. For more information and to subscribe, visit http://complexchild.org/.
7) New Pediatric-to-Adult Transition Tools Released by American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians (ACP), representing over 143,000 internal medicine specialists, subspecialists, residents, fellows, and medical students, has announced the release of specialized toolkits to facilitate more effective transition and transfer of young adults into health care settings. The new transition toolkits contain several condition-specific tools modeled after Got Transition's Six Core Elements of Health Care Transition. The six core elements define the basic components of pediatric to adult transition and are aligned with the American Academy of Pediatrics/American Academy of Family Physicians/American College of Physicians Clinical Report on Health Care Transition. They include sample, customizable tools for internal medicine, family medicine, and med-peds providers integrating young adults with and without chronic conditions into their practice. Corresponding tools are available for pediatric providers transitioning youth to adult providers and for family medicine and med-peds providers transitioning youth to an adult approach to care without changing providers. For more information about the Six Core Elements and tip sheets on Transition Coding and Reimbursement and Starting a Health Care Transition Improvement Process, visit http://gottransition.org/providers/index.cfm and http://gottransition.org/resourceGet.cfm?id=331.
8) Disability 101 Site Has New Information on the ABLE Act
An ABLE account is a financial account that can help build assets in an account that has tax advantages. Investments in an ABLE account won’t be taxed, so wealth will grow faster. To qualify, the disability must begin before age 26. These savings can be used on many types of expenses. There are rules about spending the money in from an ABLE account, but there’s also a lot of flexibility and this money can be saved without losing benefits. For more information, visit https://ca.db101.org/ca/situations/workandbenefits/assets/program.able.htm#spend.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Family Health Notes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Family Health Notes is sponsored by the Institute for Disability Studies (IDS), Mississippi’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) at The University of Southern Mississippi. IDS provides university training, community service activities, research and information that promote the independence, productivity, and community inclusion of individuals with disabilities and their families. For more information about IDS, visit http://www.usm.edu/disability-studies or call 1.888.671.0051 (TTY). To make a tax-deductible gift to IDS, visit http://www.usm.edu/disability-studies/support-ids.
The Family-to-Family Health Information and Education Center (F2F) is a family-focused, family managed resource center that empowers families of Mississippi children with special health care needs to be partners in the decisions made concerning the health of their children. F2F is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (GR#H84MC07948).
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