Rhode Island's Pediatric Practice Enhancement Project

Rhode Island’s Pediatric Practice Enhancement Project (PPEP) trains and places parent consultants into pediatric primary and specialty care practices to help families with children and youth with special health care needs coordinate and access the health system, as well as other services (e.g., social services, education, housing). Parent consultants, who are parents of special needs children themselves, assist physicians in providing comprehensive, coordinated medical homes to about 8 percent of children with special needs in the state (more than 2,800). A PPEP database, managed by the state’s Department of Health, helps identify systemwide barriers facing families. A recent evaluation suggests that PPEP participants have more outpatient encounters but fewer inpatient admissions and less intensive resource use than children with special needs who are not in PPEP practices.

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For Severely Ill Kids, a Dearth of Doctors - WSJ.com

A growing shortage of pediatricians trained in specialties such as neurology, gastroenterology, and developmental and behavioral medicine is threatening timely access to care for children, according to pediatric medical groups.

As the House and Senate intensify the process of melding their two health bills, pediatric groups are lobbying to secure more funding for training and higher reimbursement for pediatric sub-specialties, in the hope of encouraging more doctors-in-training to enter the field. Specialization typically requires up to three years of training beyond a general pediatrics residency and can pay salaries less than half the rate of adult specialty medicine. At present, 17 states lack at least one physician in one of 13 sub-specialties.

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