Proud to be a part of Privia Medical Group
September 4, 2025
Vaccines are Vital
Dear Parents,
Recently, Governor DeSantis has indicated his intention to try to eliminate vaccine mandates for children in Florida public schools. Pediatrics in Brevard strongly believes in the importance of vaccines to protect children from harmful infections and create a safe school environment for all children. We do not support attempts to roll back this very important public health policy because it would result in more hospitalizations and deaths of Florida children due to preventable diseases. We have no plans to change our vaccine policy at this time and will continue to educate parents and families on the need for public health measures such as immunization to protect every member of our community. The required school vaccinations have long been studied and shown to be safe and effective. We also believe that there are times when the public good should be prioritized over individual preference. Without this fundamental principle, humans would not be able to live peacefully in communities or societies. While there are exemptions and options for those who can not or will not accept vaccines, public health policies and mandates are needed to ensure the safety of everyone, especially our most vulnerable community members.
Live Well,
Pediatrics in Brevard
Medical offices get paid by “coding” what they do. These codes are designated by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). A new code – G2211 – has been created by CMS for primary care providers to indicate that they are following patients longitudinally and are committed to caring for the “whole patient” over time. This code is needed to account for the complexity and added resource costs of providing truly comprehensive primary care. This code is not related to a clinical condition. Instead, it refers to the long-term nature of the practitioner-patient relationship. Unlike urgent cares and emergency rooms, Pediatrics in Brevard (PIB) is recognized as a Patient Center Medical Home and takes pride in offering this type of care to your child(ren). As such, we will be adding this code to all permitted visits, which excludes annual physicals (well visits). Unfortunately, many insurance companies are not paying for all the services we provide, even if CMS says we need to document and code for what we do. Some carriers will completely deny payment. Others will pass the charge on to the patient. We are not happy with their position, and feel it is unfair both to us and to you. But, per our contracts with the insurance companies and complying with CMS, we must continue to code for services as instructed. If you receive a bill for this code, G2211, we will not be able to waive the charge. Instead, we ask that you follow up with your carrier directly for reimbursement. We take great pride in providing your child with the highest quality of care possible. Documenting and coding appropriately for the services we provide is necessary for us to continue to serve our families in this way.
Effective immediately we are no longer accepting new Sunshine patients. Unfortunately, this will include newborns and siblings of our current patients. This decision was made regretfully after a long history of chronic underpayments by Sunshine Health and a failure to correct the underpayments after given ample opportunity to do so. At Pediatrics in Brevard our priority will always be the welfare of our patients and service to the children of our community, but as a privately owned business we rely on insurance companies to fulfill their contractual obligations with prompt and complete payments so that we can continue to offer quality medical care to all of our patients. If you or your children are affected by this policy, we apologize and encourage you to contact Sunshine Health at 1-866-796-0530 with your concerns.
We moved to Merritt Island!