This policy note, prepared by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and funded by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, explores disparities in access to pediatric subspecialty care in California by insurance coverage, geographic location, race/ethnicity, and language. The paper proposes recommendations to ensure adequate access to pediatric subspecialty care.
In July 2012, about 350 philanthropists and child health experts congregated in Aspen, CO, for The Aspen Children's Forum: Investing in Children's Health and Well Being. This first-of-its-kind gathering focused on the provocative question, What role can we play in facilitating the transformation of the health and well being of children in North America over the next 20 years?
Pediatricians might feel insulated from the cost-cutting and accountability initiatives that are washing over health care providers like a tidal wave. They shouldn’t.
Pediatricians are facing pressure to account for the quality and cost of care they provide to their patients. The author highlights six ways health providers can help transform the care they provide to children and their families.
As California’s state health officials start transferring children from Healthy Families to Medi-Cal, this report outlines some of the promises and pitfalls that lie ahead for families of children with special health care needs, and offers recommendations for a smoother transition.
Compared to children in other states, California’s children with special health care needs receive care that is less coordinated, less family-centered, and fails to meet many of the key quality indicators prescribed by the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau, according to this new analysis of the 2009/10 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs.
A report released today by the USC Price School of Public Policy and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health indicates that an unprecedented decline in California’s child population, coupled with a tidal wave of Baby Boom retirees, will pose significant challenges for the state’s future prosperity.
Thanks to medical advances, growing numbers of children now live with complex, chronic health conditions. However, our health care system has not evolved to keep pace with this historic shift. The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health convened experts to develop an enhanced model for how care could be delivered to children with special health care needs in California.
Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) are defined as those who have a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition, and who also experience consequences due to their condition, such as above-routine use of health and related services or limitations in activities compared to other children.
As policymakers determine health care benefits for the exchange, Medicaid’s comprehensive EPSDT benefit is cost-effective, and guarantees access to services. In contrast, benefits designed by states under the CHIP program serve as a lesson: they cost more, and they are less effective for children with special health care needs.
