Search Results: MCHLine

Annotation: This toolkit summarizes the experiences of plans that participated in the Collaborative on Improving Managed Care Quality for Youth with Serious Behavioral Health Needs, an initiative that worked with nine health plans to test a number of approaches to better serve children and adolescents with serious emotional disorders. The toolkit presents promising practices implemented by the plans and the resulting impact on access, care, and avoidance of unnecessary services and costs; challenges identified and addressed by the plans and lessons learned; and opportunities for continued innovation.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Adolescent mental health, Child mental health, Community programs, Costs, Emotional instability, Health services, Initiatives, Medicaid managed care, Mental disorders, Model programs

Annotation: This issue brief reports on a 50-state survey conducted to understand the extent to which child welfare agencies require physical, behavioral, and oral health screenings and follow-up assessments upon a child's entry into foster care. It includes national screening and assessment recommendations for children and youth entering foster care from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Council on Accreditation, and summarizes individual state requirements. The appendix provides a state-by-state listing of the requirements and timeframes (in days) for children entering foster care.

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Keywords: Assessment, Behavior development, Child welfare agencies, Foster care, Foster children, Guidelines, Health screening, National surveys, Oral health, Physical activity

Annotation: This issue brief reports on a 50-state survey conducted to understand the extent to which child welfare agencies require physical, behavioral, and oral health screenings and follow-up assessments upon a child's entry into foster care. It includes national screening and assessment recommendations for children and youth entering foster care from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Council on Accreditation, and summarizes individual state requirements. The appendix provides a state-by-state listing of the requirements and timeframes (in days) for children entering foster care.

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Keywords: Assessment, Behavior development, Child welfare agencies, Foster care, Foster children, Guidelines, Health screening, National surveys, Oral health, Physical activity

Annotation: This issue brief describes the findings of a national survey of residential treatment facilities (RTFs) serving children and youth with serious behavioral health challenges. It explores the extent to which system of care principles are reflected in RTF policies and practices and how they provide home- and community-based services.

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Keywords: Adolescent mental health, Behavior disorders, Child mental health, Health services delivery, Residential care

Annotation: This toolkit describes the efforts of the nine Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) that participated in Improving Outcomes for Children Involved in Child Welfare: A CHCS Quality Improvement Collaborative, designed by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) and funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The toolkit includes a project overview, an overview and description of the impact of the MCOs' initiatives, and discussions of care coordination and lessons learned.

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Keywords: Behavior problems, Child health, Child welfare, Chronic illnesses and disabilities, Collaboration, Ethnic factors, Foster care, Foster children, High risk children, Initiatives, Low income groups, Medicaid managed care, Mental health, Programs, Racial factors

Annotation: This issue brief examines the physical and behavioral health care needs and associated costs for children in child welfare and outlines opportunities and challenges within Medicaid to better manage care for this high-risk, high-cost population. The brief also discusses the use of managed care within child welfare, approaches to managed care for children in child welfare, program design considerations for child welfare populations, and critical considerations for health plans serving child welfare populations. Legislative challenges are outlined, and several examples of programs designed for the child welfare population are provided.

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Keywords: Behavior disorders, Behavior problems, Child health, Child welfare, Community programs, Costs, High risk groups, Legislation, Managed care, Medicaid

Annotation: This issue brief reports on practical strategies that health care purchasers and plans nationally are implementing to address documented gaps in health care delivery. It highlights the need for standardized collection of race, ethnicity and language data, culturally competent approaches, as well as the involvement and commitment of multiple stakeholders to better track and improve barriers to care, incidence of chronic disease, lower quality of care, and higher mortality rates. Sections include the purchaser/policymakers' role in addressing disparities, establishing standards for data collection, using performance incentives to reduce disparities, the role of managed care organizations in addressing disparities, using data to identify disparities and target interventions, increasing access to culturally and linguistically competent care, and involving the community to address disparities.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Barriers, Cultural competency, Cultural factors, Cultural sensitivity, Health care financing, Health services delivery, Language barriers, Racial factors

Annotation: This report highlights the successes, challenges, and results of six states (Arizona, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont) who developed programs to reduce disparities and improve quality in oral health services. The report is divided into two main sections: (1) measuring oral health services performance and (2) state action for oral health access strategies. The strategies section discusses specific state efforts to improve the oral health delivery system, such as developing value-based purchasing strategies, broadening the provider network, expanding the dental safety net, creating a dental home, and enhancing consumer and provider education. A conclusion and endnotes are provided.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Arizona, Case studies, Children, Families, Health education, Health services delivery, Oral health, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Program descriptions, Provider participation, Rhode Island, South Carolina, State programs, Strategic plans, Vermont

Annotation: This tool kit offers a structured approach for addressing quality improvement and a collection of "lessons learned" by a diverse group of health plans serving Medicaid members. The tool kit begins with a discussion of the process improvement model used in Best Clinical and Administrative Practices (BCAP). It then presents the BCAP "Typology for Improvement" developed for the Achieving Better Care for Asthma work group, followed by a separate chapter on each typology category. The following chapter describes methods to improve provider practices in designing more effective asthma management services. The last chapter outlines effective communication tactics to facilitate change. The 14 appendices provide sample tools from BCAP work group health plans, recommended readings, and contacts.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Asthma, Health services delivery, Medicaid, Model programs

Annotation: This report offers recommendations for policy makers to integrate individuals with lived expertise as partners in program and policy design, implementation, and evaluation to more effectively address food insecurity. Access to affordable, nutritious food is a significant challenge for many individuals enrolled in Medicaid. Experts with lived experience joined state policy makers and representatives from national health care and social services organizations to address hunger by increasing cross-agency partnerships and identifying solutions.

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Keywords: Child health, Evaluation, Federal programs, Food insecurity, Health care disparities, Health equity, Health status disparities, Hunger, Medicaid, Policy development, Poverty, Social factors

Annotation: This brief reports on the activities of Medicaid plans to collaboratively develop, refine, and pilot practices to improve birth outcomes under the Best Clinical and Administrative Practices (BCAP) initiative, a program to enhance the ability of plans to bring quality care to enrollees. Topics include: creating a common language for process involvement; applying the BCAP model toward improving birth outcomes; each of the steps of the model -- identification, stratification, outreach, intervention; and measurement for evaluation.

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Keywords: Birth rates, Enrollment, Health insurance programs, Medicaid, Model programs, Outcome evaluation, Pregnancy outcome, Program development

Annotation: This chartbook identifies populations with special needs in Medicaid and highlights the clinical and fiscal implications for states and health plans enrolling people with chronic illnesses and disabilities in managed care.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Chronic illnesses and disabilities, Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, Policy development, Statistics

Annotation: This report describes Iowa's efforts to incorporate child welfare services within a Medicaid 1915(b) waiver that is publicly managed. The report first describes the child welfare system and its use of Medicaid financing, generally. The report then details the history of Iowa's efforts to incorporate managed care tools within the child welfare system through new financing arrangements and, ultimately, a 1915(b) waiver. A conclusion and final observations are included. The report includes footnotes.

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Keywords: Child welfare, Financing, Iowa, Managed care, Medicaid

Annotation: This strategy brief identifies lessons learned and effective strategies for implementing a system of care approach to improve behavioral health outcomes for children and their families. It details core principles such as building trust among cross-sector partners, centering families as primary decision-makers, and prioritizing the delivery of home- and community-based services. The document discusses key elements for achieving scale and sustainability, including leadership commitment, flexible financing, and workforce capacity building through Centers of Excellence. Based on a literature review and interviews with stakeholders, it features jurisdictional profiles and practice examples from New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, and Oklahoma

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Keywords: Behavior, Child health, Families, Family support programs, Literature reviews, Mental health, Models, Service delivery systems

Annotation: This chartbook, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, offers to help states, health plans, and policymakers design more effective health care delivery systems for children with asthma. It identifies the population of children with asthma and tracks asthma-related costs in private and publicly financed health care systems, comparing the prevalence, costs, and severity of pediatric asthma in the commercial and public sectors. Charts, tables, and graphs provide extensive statistical data on asthma demographics, expenditures, and payer distribution.

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Keywords: Asthma, Child health, Chronic illnesses and disabilities, Health care costs, Health care delivery, Health care financing, Health insurance, State programs, Statistics

Annotation: This series of fact sheets help clinicians, patient advocates, and other stakeholders improve care for individuals with low health literacy. The fact sheets define health literacy; describe ways to identify low health literacy; provide strategies to improve print and oral communication for low-literate consumers; provide information about the intersection of health literacy and culture; and highlight key policies relating to health literacy.

• 6 Fact Sheets In 1 File
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Keywords: Consumer educatio, Cultural factors, Health behavior, Health literacy, Health services delivery, Literacy education, Low literacy, Patient education materials, Resources for professionals

Annotation: This brief outlines a pilot program "Baby Steps Towards Health" to increase Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) visits for children from birth to age three in Michigan by creating a link between the member, practitioner, and health plans as well as increasing parent involvement. Section topics include an introduction to the program; an overview of intervention roles; project aims, measures, and changes; outreach roles; and summaries of overall program results and program expansion.

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Keywords: Assessment, Case studies, Collaboration, EPSDT, Infants, MCH programs, Michigan, Physician patient relations, Pilot projects, Screening, Young children

Annotation: This report profiles the experiences of the Center for Health Care Strategies initiative, New Jersey Collaborative to Improve Birth Outcomes and Health Status of Children. The report discusses (1) how the five New Jersey Medicaid plans worked collaboratively to standardize quality improvement (i.e., improve birth outcomes), (2) designing a standardized prenatal risk-assessment form (PRA), (3) getting buy-in from health professionals for the PRA, (4) managing a centralized data repository, (5) key lessons from the improving birth outcomes collaborative, and (6) moving forward.

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Keywords: Infant health, Infant mortality, Initiatives: Collaboration, Low birthweight infants, Medicaid, New Jersey, Premature infants, Prenatal care, Prevention programs, State programs

Annotation: This chart outlines different proposed frameworks in New Jersey to increase the number of infants and children from birth through age 5 who have received an annual dental visit. The chart outlines identification, outreach, and intervention steps to take and how outcomes will be measured.

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Keywords: Access to health care, Infants, Local initiatives, New Jersey, Oral health, Young children

Annotation: This brief describes New Jersey’s Medicaid managed care program, NJ FamilyCare/Medicaid, which provides children from families with low incomes with oral health care as a covered benefit. Topics include program efforts to increase the number of preschool-age children who complete an annual dental visit in six cities (Atlantic City, Camden, Lakewood, New Brunswick, Newark, and Paterson) and to create a dental home for children enrolled in Head Start in Newark. Information on the program's successes and future challenges is also included.

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Keywords: Financing, Head Start, Health services delivery, Low income groups, Medicaid managed care, New Jersey, Oral health, Oral health care, Program descriptions, State programs, Young children