Rescheduling/Missing Visits with Families

With the holidays and wintertime upon us, we wanted to share this piece of guidance with all of our providers regarding rescheduling missed visits with families. The following is an excerpt from the Q/A available on the DESE website:

Question 1: If a regularly scheduled visit with a family falls on a national holiday, are providersrequired to make-up the visit?
Answer: If a provider's regularly scheduled visit falls on - New Year's Day- Memorial Day,- Fourth of July, - Labor Day, - Thanksgiving Day or - Christmas Day, the provider would NOT be expected to offer the family a make-up visit. For example, if a provider sees a family every Thursday, the provider would not be expected to offer the family a make-up visit for a visit missed due to Thanksgiving.

Question 2: If a provider misses a scheduled visit for any reason, is the provider required tomake-up the visit?
Answer: YES, it is expected that the provider will make up the visit as soon as possible. If theprovider is unable to make-up the visit within the current IFSP period, the provider musthave a conversation with the family and the service coordinator to determine how themissed visit will be provided. The decision should be entered in the service coordinator'scase notes in WebSPOE.

Question 3: How are visits and consultations handled when a provider takes maternity leave?
Answer: Prior to taking maternity leave, the provider should begin having conversations withfamilies and service coordinators to develop a plan for provision of services while she ison leave. A plan may include a substitute provider, changing providers permanently, ormake-up visits once returning from maternity leave (e.g., if only seeing a child monthly,quarterly, etc.). If substituting or changing providers, the service coordinator must bemade aware of the change at least one week before the start date of the new provider inorder to make the needed changes to the authorizations.

Question 4: If the family misses a scheduled visit for any reason, is the provider required to make-up the visit?
Answer: When a family misses a visit, the issue of whether or not that visit should be made upis individualized to the needs of the child and family. If a family frequently misses visits,the service coordinator should convene the IFSP team to discuss with the family why theservices were missed and to determine the appropriateness of making up the services.IFSP teams should consider the impact of the missed visits on the child's progress anddetermine how to ensure the continued provision of services in order for the child tocontinue to progress towards the outcomes of the IFSP.

Question 5: If a provider arrives for a scheduled visit and the family is not present, how does aprovider bill for this?
Answer: If a provider arrives for a visit and discovers that the family is not there, the provideris allowed to bill 1 unit (15 minutes) and mileage related to this visit. If this visit isrescheduled with family for a later date, the provider can either1) shorten the make-up visit by 15 minutes; OR2) keep the rescheduled visit at the full intensity. If the provider runs out of units before the end of the IFSP period, the provider should speak to the service coordinatorabout additional time.If a provider is en route to a visit and the family calls to cancel, this CANNOT be billed as amissed visit.

Question 6: Where should providers document missed visits and plans to reschedule?
Answer: All records of missed visits and cancellations should be documented in the child'sprogress notes. The progress note should include:. the date of service. why the visit was cancelled. who initiated the cancellation. all phone attempts to reach the family to schedule visits. any difficulty contacting the family, and. the plan to reschedule the visit, if needed.