A child who is in referral or pre-enrollment and whose family or guardian situation (see below) causes delays with a child getting the referral completed, an intake/eval or IFSP completed. In this situation the provider may choose to PEND the child, releasing ILP from 45-day timeline requirements. Despite pending a child, PIC is required to process children to enrollment in a timely manner. Pending means a referral is “on hold” due to family reasons. It formally stops the 45-day timeline.
What is a PEND for?
A child who is pre-enrollment and whose family or guardian situation (see below) causes delays with a child getting the referral completed, an intake/eval or IFSP completed. In this situation the provider may choose to PEND the child, releasing ILP from 45-day timeline requirements. We still need to process children in a timely manner even when children have been pended. Pending means a service is “on hold” due to family reasons.
There is no need to inform families other than verbally, that their case has been pended and the 45-day timeline has been waived due to family reasons. We do not need to send a letter of pend or notification.
Pending/Exempt to 45 Days: the State office will only accept family reasons for exemption for the 45-day timeline. We still need to process children in a timely manner, even when children have been pended. Pending means a service is “on hold” due to family reasons.
Family reasons to pend include:
- Family cancels due to illness of the child, parent or sibling in the home.
- Family cancels for any other reasons and/or asks to reschedule.
- Family no shows.
- Family scheduling difficulties. Examples: family: is/will be out of town; your first available appointment is declined and next available is further out; has limited availability to schedule- “I can only do appt’s on Tues & Thurs”.
- Family delay responding to provider’s attempts to schedule. Example: Provider has reached out to the family at least 3 times across a 2-week period without a response from the family or successfully scheduling.
Unacceptable reason for pend:
- Provider’s first available appointment is after the 45 days- this child should be reassigned at Team.
- Provider availability is limited
- Provider cancellation
- Provider out on PTO
Procedures to Pend for Direct Service Providers
**Admin will add the pend for any child who has missed the 45-day timeline IF there is a cancel by family (with a reason provided) or no showed appointment in the visit history. However, this is a retroactive pend added only once the 45-day timeline has been missed and is NOT automatic.**
When a child meets the above criteria to be pended, take the following steps:
- Add a communication log note under the Category “45Days Family Pend” from the drop-down menu.
- Make sure the date of the comm log note matches the date of the reason for pend (it defaults to the current date).
- In the Notes section detail the specific reason for the pend. EX: Family is out of town for the next 2 weeks and so intake is scheduled for mm/dd/yy.
- Sign off on your comm log note.
Admin receives an automatic task once the comm log note is signed off, so no further notification is needed.
Procedures to Pend for Admin
The automated task will come to group 10, with the date and reason for pend provided in the comm log note. It is Admin’s responsibility to ensure the reason given for the pend is a family reason for delay and accepted by the State.
Pend in RT by changing the status of the child in the Patient Demographics tab to PEND and correcting the date to match that of the comm log/visit cancellation.
Note: a child can be pended for each and every step of the enrollment process, as long as it’s before IFSP. This includes pending at Referral, Screen, Intake, and Evaluation. However, since once a child is pended, the timeline is put on hold, we don’t require multiple pends. If the pend is over 100 days, review the timeline and see if there are multiple reasons for the delay. This is reviewed in the Reminders Report process by the Office Manager.
For the SDB: If the PEND occurs between Referral and Eval, you will choose the Referral, or if the PEND occurs prior to IFSP but after Eval you will choose Eval.
Referral: To pend for the screen or evaluation appt., use the Referral tab, add a new disposition based on which appt. was pended, for the Screen appt. select ‘Screen Pending/Family Reason’, for the eval appt. select ‘Evaluation Pending/Family Reason.
*In the Notes section, copy the reason for the pend from the comm log, write Pend, the date the child was pended, and the reason.”
Screen: To pend for the evaluation appt. after a Screening has been completed, use the Screen tab, add a new disposition of ‘Eval Pending/Family Reason’.
*In the Notes section, copy the reason for the pend from the comm log, write Pend, the date the child was pended, and the reason.
Evaluation: To pend prior to the IFSP appt., use the Eval tab, enter the date pended and reason in the Notes section of the state database. For disposition, select ‘Enrollment Pending/Family Reason’.
*In the Notes section, copy the reason for the pend from the comm log, the date the child was pended, and copy the reason for the pend from the comm log.