Beacon Clinic Consultative Services
We want to help rural community providers keep children with medical complexity in their hometowns as much as possible. Thus, the Beacon Program offers our consultative services for children with medical complexity who qualify for our program but want to stay closer to home.
These services can help your family access coordinated care for your child's medical needs, while also providing assistance with other areas of life, such as economic, environmental, and mental health stressors.
Do we qualify for consultative services?
We can currently offer this service to children with either Missouri Medicaid as their primary insurance or Kansas Medicaid as their primary or secondary insurance. Community consult families need to live more than 55 miles away from Children’s Mercy Hospital. Local families (who live within 55 miles of Children’s Mercy) could be referred for Beacon to become the primary care provider.
Visits are performed virtually at Children’s Mercy locations in Overland Park, Junction City, and Wichita, Kan. as well as Independence, Joplin, and St. Joseph, Mo. We also have relationships with community providers in several locations in Kansas, such as Baxter Springs, Coffeyville, Columbus, Dodge City, Great Bend, Hiawatha, Independence, Iola, Parsons, and Pittsburg. These providers assist us in conducting the virtual visit.
Benefits of consultative services
- Support from providers who specialize in the care of children with medical complexity.
- Annual two-hour comprehensive care visit via telemedicine with the child and family.
- A care plan will be developed and shared with the primary care provider, family, and patient.
- The electronic medical record at Children’s Mercy will have updates made to the child's Problem list, Past Medical History, Family History, and Social History sections.
- The Beacon provider will create a Pediatric Emergency Form for the child. This is a brief summary of the child's medical history, medications, allergies and specialists that can be used by emergency medical services and emergency room providers to quickly know a child's medical information.
- The Beacon team remains available to the primary care provider throughout the year to trouble-shoot or assist with needs or problems that arise. The primary care provider still remains the first point of contact for the family for emergency needs and concerns. Our goal is not to replace any child's primary care provider; our goal is to provide additional support for primary care providers, knowing that many practices do not have the additional resources that we can provide.
- A Beacon provider is available 24/7 to the community primary care provider for additional medical management support as needed. Additional Beacon team members are available to the primary care provider from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., Monday – Friday to assist with social, dietary, or nursing needs.
Consultative services for health care providers
The best strategies, care structures, processes, and outcomes result when patients, families and health care providers form trusting, caring partnerships and draw upon one another’s perspectives and experience. We are looking for community pediatric practices that are interested in working with the Beacon Program to partner in the care of children with medical complexity (CMC) to improve their care.
What are we asking from you?
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Continue to care for children with medical complexity with Medicaid as their payer as you currently do.
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Co-manage CMCs with Medicaid that are accepted into the Beacon program. You will remain the primary care provider, but now have the additional services and supports from the Beacon Team.
We feel the consultative service offers an opportunity to demonstrate the true value of what we do for this vulnerable population of children. We hope you will join this important collaborative effort and help to transform the care for children with medical complexity in Kansas and Missouri. If you are interested in referring a patient, please complete the appropriate referral form below.
Forms for consultative services
We utilize two forms in our referral process:
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Beacon Program Referral Form (for use by health care providers)
If the patient that you are referring has any specialists outside of the Children's Mercy system, the Beacon Program will need to receive those outside records before being able to schedule the patient for an appointment. The Beacon Program will also need records from the child's outside primary care provider. Please fill out the authorization for release of medical information form for each provider to ensure all records are received. In the "information to be sent to" section, please put the following information:
Beacon Program
beaconprogram@cmh.edu
(816) 960-8040
Fax: (816) 302-9738
3101 Broadway 10th Floor
Kansas City, MO 64111
A completed Authorization for Release of Medical Information Form can be sent via email, mailed to the address above, faxed to the fax number above, or dropped off by the parent. Please note that the Beacon program cannot pick up records.