FAQs
Who is Imagine Pediatrics?
We are an innovative, tech-enabled, pediatrician-led medical group delivering 24/7 virtual and in-home pediatric care to children with special health care needs. Our multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, pharmacists, and other clinical staff is available any time of the night or day to provide fully integrated medical, behavioral, and social care at home.
What does Imagine Pediatrics do?
We provide unlimited access to specialized pediatric clinical programming purpose-built for children with acute medical and behavioral health conditions. Our multidisciplinary team works in partnership with pediatricians, specialists, home health and private duty nursing agencies, durable medical equipment (DME) providers, and community resources to provide our patients and their caregivers with expanded access to integrated medical, behavioral, and social care.
We do not replace a child’s care team or disintermediate the relationship with their pediatrician. Instead, we team with their existing providers and augment patient care with enhanced services through a care collaboration approach. We partner with health plans to serve children with special health care needs via total-cost of-care and quality performance-based risk arrangements that align our economic model with outcomes for our patients and partners.
What services do you provide for your patients?
Through value-based care contracts, our multidisciplinary team of pediatricians, advanced practice providers, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, registered dietitians and licensed mental health therapists work in partnership with providers, caregivers, community resources, and health plans to expand patient access to fully integrated 24/7 medical, behavioral, and social care at home. Everything we do is designed to improve the life and health of a child with special health care needs – and to provide support to those who care for them.
Our services span:
• Virtual and in-home care. We prioritize care modalities that are most convenient for caregivers. Anytime of the day or night they can call or message us using the Imagine Pediatrics Mobile App. We will answer their questions, hold a virtual care visit, address their child’s acute needs, and when appropriate, provide in-home diagnostics and treatment.
• Integrated medical, behavioral, and social care. We provide multidisciplinary, whole-child care that is comprehensive and designed to meet the specific needs of the children we serve. All of our patients receive Core Care Services, including unlimited access to 24/7 virtual and in-home multidisciplinary pediatric care. Additionally, patients with complex medical needs in our Medical Care Pathway receive pediatric provider-led longitudinal care based on their diagnosis and family needs. Patients in our Behavioral Care Pathway receive pediatric behavioral health care and crisis care managed by a licensed social worker and therapist. This personalized and integrated care pathway approach is powered by our proprietary analytics and technology platform.
• Care coordination and support throughout the patient journey. We work in collaboration with a child’s health plan and network providers to ensure our patients have what they need to succeed with their existing care plan. We help caregivers find specialists, set appointments, and complete paperwork. We make referrals and expedite prior authorizations. We help coordinate medications and equipment. And we help connect caregivers to programs and services that address social needs – like food benefits, transportation, and housing.
We do not replace a child’s existing doctors, care team or medical home. We work with providers, specialists, caregivers, and community resources to provide virtual and in-home care and support around the clock. Our goal is to improve the health and lives of kids so they can spend less unnecessary time in the hospital and more time safe at home and in their communities.
What problem does Imagine Pediatrics address?
1 in 5 children in the U.S. have special health care needs. These 14.5 million children make up ~50% of all pediatric health care spend. Their unique health needs require highly personalized, immediately responsive care that takes significant time, resources, and services to provide. Yet, care for these children is fragmented, uncoordinated, or inaccessible. This is especially true for the millions of these children that are Medicaid-eligible who struggle with access to pediatricians and specialists who are in short supply. As a result, these children and their caregivers have limited support and often resort to accessing emergency rooms and urgent care, leading to unnecessary hospitalizations and frustrating experiences.
What can Imagine Pediatrics do for parents and caregivers?
Everything we do is designed to improve the life and health of a child with special health care needs—and to bring a bit of relief to the caregivers and clinicians who care for them. We know that parents and caregivers face many challenges as they care for their child with special health care needs. That’s why we are ready anytime of the day or night to help them get the care and support their child deserves, 24/7 – right at home.
We work closely with parents and caregivers to support their child. We help with medication and equipment. We find specialists, set appointments, and complete paperwork. We can also help in times of mental health crisis if needed. And we can connect caregivers to other services that their child might need.
Once a caregiver activates their child’s benefit, they gain access to comprehensive longitudinal and acute care, care coordination, and social support services delivered by our multidisciplinary team. Caregivers can access this support through the Imagine PediatricsTM Mobile App or by phone call. Through the app, caregivers can:
• Engage in immediate, secure, 24/7 messaging with their child’s Imagine Pediatrics care team
• Join multi-tenant video visits, which support longitudinal and acute care
• Access educational materials and their personalized care plans
• Provide inputs that improve care quality and delivery (e.g., PRAPARE, GAD, PHQ9)
With Imagine Pediatrics, caregivers and patients don’t have to leave home to get care and support because our services are virtual. We partner with health plans so we can offer our services to children who qualify. There is no cost for eligible children when our services are part of their existing health plan benefits.
When a child is enrolled in our services, their parents and caregivers can call or message us anytime using our mobile app. We are ready to help 24/7. We will answer questions, get on a video call, or, in some areas, visit their home to diagnose and treat their child. If their child has an acute episode, we provide care and support right away, at any time of the day or night.
What can Imagine Pediatrics do for private duty nurses (PDNs)?
We support private duty nurses (PDNs) in the home. PDNs can contact us for extra help through the Imagine Pediatrics Mobile App. We support them by:
• Offering direct access to our physicians 24/7 to expedite patient care
• Bringing more clinical support services into the home, so they have additional help at the bedside, anytime they need it
We can also help them get a prior authorization, medication refills, or equipment support and are available to PDNs anytime they have a question or need a quick consultation about a shared patient.
What can Imagine Pediatrics do for a child’s existing care team?
We help expand the collective impact of care teams by providing 24/7 integrated medical, behavioral, and social care in the home to children with special health care needs.
We aim to give care teams more peace of mind by giving our shared patients additional acute care coverage 24/7 — in particular during off work hours at night, over the weekend, and on holidays. When a child enrolls in our services, we contact their existing care team to introduce ourselves and answer any questions they have. After that, every time we provide care, we send an update to the child’s PCP and other doctors, so everyone knows about any care changes.
By working together, we improve quality, experience, and cost outcomes for our partners and patients through innovative value-based care partnerships, taking risk on the outcomes we know we can deliver and improving the health and lives of kids so they can spend less unnecessary time in the hospital and more time safe at home and in their communities.
The care and support we provide is designed to improve the life and health of a child with special health care needs so they can achieve better outcomes, and we can bring some relief and peace of mind to all those who care for them.
What services does Imagine Pediatrics provide?
We provide medical, behavioral, and social care and support to children with special health care needs, 24/7 — right at home. We serve families in many ways. Our services include:
• 24/7 access to virtual and in-home pediatric care services
• Integrated medical, behavioral, and social care
• Technology-enabled care coordination and family communication tools including the Imagine Pediatrics mobile app which allows for secure messaging which is closely monitored by our clinical team
• Dedicated caregiver support, including training and individualized resources
• Comprehensive support addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) and navigation of a complex and fragmented healthcare environment
• Coordination and collaboration with the care delivery ecosystem to ensure all are focused on delivering whole-person, fully informed care
• Population health data analytics measured through patient-centered digital, virtual, and in-home services and integrated with claims-based utilization data
• Our transitions of care nursing team provides support for families in the critical days after an ER or hospital discharge, ensuring the family understands their child’s illness, changes to their treatment plan, and follow-up with their primary medical and/or behavioral health team.
How does Imagine Pediatrics leverage technology in its care?
At Imagine Pediatrics we leverage technology to improve outcomes, increase patient and care team experience, as well as achieving operational efficiency – resulting in higher quality of care and reduced cost of care.
Our ecosystem of interconnected digital products is fueled by one of the largest provider-managed data sets on children with medical complexity and special health care needs.
The Imagine PediatricsTM Mobile App that is used by patients and caregivers is one part of our broader proprietary technology platform, which includes an ecosystem of interconnected digital products and data. By empowering our pediatric multidisciplinary teams with actionable insights at the point of care we are able to delivery personalized, integrated, high-quality pediatric care and social support from home for children with special health care needs, 24/7.
How does a caregiver know if their child qualifies for Imagine Pediatrics services?
When a child qualifies for our services, we call their caregiver to enroll their child. During that call, we describe who we are and what we do. We help them download our app and activate our services. We also answer any questions they may have and offer our help.
Caregivers are always welcome to call us at (833) 208-7770 to see if their child qualifies.
What should a parent or caregiver expect from Imagine Pediatrics?
Parents and caregivers can expect to be heard and helped as they care for their child. Throughout the enrollment process, we listen closely to caregivers to learn all about their child’s needs. We do this so that anytime their child needs care, we can help immediately. After enrollment, our team of doctors, nurses, social workers, and other clinicians will be ready 24/7 to provide care and support. We help caregivers get referrals and medication refills. We also help with equipment repairs and replacements. All of our services are designed to improve the life and health of a child with special health care needs. So. they can avoid unnecessary hospital visits and spend more time safe at home, and we can bring their caregivers some relief and peace of mind.
When should a parent or caregiver call or message Imagine Pediatrics?
Some examples of when a parents or caregivers can call us for assistance are if:
• A child is sick or has a change in symptoms
• They have questions about their child’s care or are not sure if the child needs immediate care
• They need help getting approval for therapy or care that usually requires lots of coordination with PCPs or specialists
• There is an issue with durable medical equipment (DME)
• There are questions about medication or need a refill for their child
• Help is needed with coordinating care, setting up appointments, or getting referrals
If a child enrolls in Imagine Pediatrics, will they keep their existing doctors?
Yes. When a child enrolls in our services, they keep all their current doctors. We do not replace a child’s existing doctors, care team or medical home. We work with providers, specialists, caregivers, and community resources to provide virtual and in-home care and support around the clock. By partnering with a child’s existing doctors we can provide expanded access to 24/7 integrated medical, behavioral and social care and support in the home. When a child we care for has a change in symptoms, we help parents and caregivers decide if their child can be cared for at home, if they should get an in-home visit from a member of our care team in some areas, or if they should be taken to the emergency room.
We also provide extra help to private duty nurses based in the home. We can help them get a prior authorization, medication refills, or equipment support. We are also available to them anytime they have a question or need a quick consultation.
How will I know if my child qualifies for Imagine Pediatrics?
We care for a complex and heterogeneous population of children and youth with special health care needs who are Medicaid-eligible or covered by a Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) plan.
Many of our patients have:
• Complex medical, behavioral, and social needs
• Chronic conditions
• Frequent hospitalizations or ER visits
• Many medications and equipment that take time to order and maintain
• Many specialists and community services that can be hard to coordinate
Are any of your patients in foster care?
Yes, some of our patients are in foster care. We help them and their caregivers with continuity of care throughout a child’s foster journey and streamlined, seamless support for home coordinators and caregivers of multiple children in foster care. We are also a dedicated partner in navigating the complex foster care system and offer coordination with government agencies, school systems, and local community resources. Most important, we stand in the gap when there is transfer from one placement to another to ensure a child is connected with the medical teams and support they need in their new home.
Are services from Imagine Pediatrics available to other children in a household?
While it can be true that multiple children in a household are eligible for our services, it is not always the case. Children are eligible based on a referral from their health plan and the complexity of their diagnoses. If a child is eligible, we contact their caregiver to enroll their child and activate our services. Caregivers are welcome to call us at (833) 208-7770 to see if their child qualifies.
Do children enrolled with Imagine Pediatrics still have access to member services at their health plan?
Yes. When a child enrolls in our services, they still have access to their service coordinators or member services teams at their health plan. We work closely with service coordinators when we identify needs or when a service coordinator feels a child or their family could use our care and support. We work closely with these teams as another advocate for what a child may need and to ensure that families feel supported and to help ensure that a child has continuous access to the care they deserve.
How important is the collaboration between Imagine Pediatrics and its health plan partners?
Our collaboration with our health plan partners is very important as we work together toward a common goal of expanding access to care and improving the lives of their most vulnerable pediatric members. By partnering together, our health plan partners enable us to surround patients and their caregivers with continuous access to acute and longitudinal value-based care, support, and communications that earn trust and drive ongoing engagement. The result is that we improve the health and lives of kids so they can spend less unnecessary time in the hospital and more time safe at home and in their communities. By working together, we improve quality, experience and cost outcomes for our health plan partners and their members through an innovative value-based care partnership, taking risk on the outcomes we know we can deliver.
How is Imagine Pediatrics different from member services at a health plan?
We are different from member services at a health plan because we provide health care directly to children with special health care needs. We are a team of doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, and other clinicians. We team up with a child’s current doctors to be sure that kids have continuous access to the care they need and deserve. We are ready day and night to help children and their caregivers in their home. We answer questions, perform virtual care visits, help with medication refills, equipment issues, appointment scheduling, and more. We provide expanded access to 24/7 integrated medical, behavioral and social care and support in the home. Our goal is to help kids avoid unnecessary ER visits and hospitalizations so they can spend more time safe at home and in their community.
How much do your services cost?
We partner with health plans so we can offer our services to children who qualify. There is no cost for eligible children when our services are part of their existing health plan benefits.
Health plans that want to explore a partnership can contact us at [email protected].
Does Imagine Pediatrics coordinate with a child’s PCP if the child is hospitalized?
When we provide care, we communicate with a child’s PCP and other doctors to ensure continuity of care. If a child is hospitalized, we do a follow-up visit with the child and their parent or caregiver. After discharge, we update the child’s PCP, so everyone on the care team knows about any care changes.
What languages does Imagine Pediatrics support?
We have English- and Spanish-speaking staff. We also offer interpreter services for all other languages to enable us to meet the needs of our patients.
In what areas is Imagine Pediatrics available?
Currently, we partner with health plans in Texas, Florida, and District of Columbia. Our services are available to eligible children enrolled in some health plans in these locations.