By Christy Blakely, President, Medical Services Board, and Chair, Children’s Disability Advisory Committee, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing; former Executive Director, Family Voices Colorado | Martha Davis, Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | Jen Eder, Manager, Manatt Health | Laura Epperly, Care Management Specialist, Division of Integrated Care, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services | Holly Henry, Director, Program for Children with Special Health Care Needs, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health | Cindy Mann, Partner, Manatt Health | Kinda Serafi, Partner, Manatt Health

Medicaid covers about half of all children with special healthcare needs in the U.S., playing a central role in addressing the complex physical and behavioral challenges of this particularly vulnerable population.¹ Although federal Medicaid law requires providing all children under age 21 with comprehensive pediatric healthcare services through provisions known as Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT),² children with special healthcare needs and their families face numerous challenges when seeking to access services. Almost a fifth of families of children with special healthcare needs report at least one unmet need (such as access to preventive or specialist care)—and that number increases to 44% for children who are medically complex.³

How can state Medicaid agencies, families, advocates, providers and other stakeholders partner to improve access to services for Medicaid-enrolled children with special healthcare needs? Find out during a new webinar from Manatt, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. Based on a new issue brief, “Keeping Medicaid’s Promise: Strengthening Access to Services for Children with Special Healthcare Needs,” the webinar features a suite of actions states can implement and sustain over time to ensure children with special healthcare needs receive the right care in the right place at the right time. Key topics include:

• A review of the complex and diverse challenges children with special healthcare needs face
• An understanding of Medicaid’s commitment to children, including an overview of EPSDT, with a detailed look at Medicaid’s unique definition of medical necessity for children
• A checklist of eight best-practice strategies state Medicaid agencies can implement to improve access to healthcare for children with special healthcare needs
• Real-world examples of innovative initiatives states are executing to enhance services, screening, communication, care coordination and monitoring for children with special healthcare needs and their families

Click here to read an executive summary of the issue brief.

Presenters
Christy Blakely, President, Medical Services Board, and Chair, Children’s Disability Advisory Committee, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing; former Executive Director, Family Voices Colorado
Martha Davis, Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Jen Eder, Manager, Manatt Health
Laura Epperly, Care Management Specialist, Division of Integrated Care, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services
Holly Henry, Director, Program for Children with Special Health Care Needs, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
Cindy Mann, Partner, Manatt Health
Kinda Serafi, Partner, Manatt Health

Date and Time
Wednesday,
October 2, 2019

_{¹ Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicaid’s Role for Children with Special Health Care Needs: A Look at Eligibility, Services, and Spending (June 12, 2019), available at https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaids-role-for-children-with-special-health-care-needs-a-look-at-eligibility-services-and-spending/ (last visited on May 28, 2019).}

_{² Social Security Act § 1905(r); 42 U.S.C. § 1396d.}

_{³ Dennis Z. Kuo, et al., Health Affairs, Inequities In Health Care Needs For Children With Medical Complexity (December 2014), available at https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0273 (last visited on May 28, 2019).}

If you would like to receive an audio transcript of this webinar due to accessibility issues, please email us at webinars@manatt.com.

This program does not constitute legal advice, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship. Views expressed by presenters are strictly their own and should not be construed to be the views of Manatt or attributed to Manatt.