COVER ALL KIDS
The Coalition
supports policies and investments necessary to realize the goal of covering all
kids and promoting access to comprehensive health care by the year 2010. The Coalition prioritizes the following proposals for
investment in the 2008 supplemental budget to help ensure all children
have access to a medical home:
- Developmental screening – Pay for validated developmental screenings - of young children birth to 5 years of age - to facilitate early identification and intervention for children with developmental delays, such as Autism. Early intervention can improve educational and developmental outcomes.
- Well-child care – While action on enhanced reimbursement was taken by the 2007 Legislature, there is still a need to reexamine the standard of well-child care, including annual visits for adolescents, and to make these visits more valuable to parents. A workgroup will be formed in 2008 to redesign the well-child visit schedule and content.
- Dental services – Provide incentive payments for delivery of dental disease prevention services. Incentives would be paid to dentists and primary care providers who deliver a package of oral health preventive services in a 12-month period before age 1, and from 1 to 3 years of age.
- Vaccine administration - A multi-pronged effort is needed to increase child immunization levels. One necessary step is to increase the payment to providers for administering vaccines. Other interventions include emphasizing under-used vaccines, such as the administration of the 4th DTaP vaccine and Varicella, and parent education campaigns. Washington State is 41st out of the 50 states in vaccine administration measures.
- After hours clinics – Pay for after hours care to facilitate decreased emergency room use for non-emergent problems.
- Expand Health Professional Loan Repayment and Scholarship Program– Improve children’s access to providers in underserved and rural areas by expanding the Health Professional Loan Repayment and Scholarship Program. This proposal supports the goal of improving access to a medical home for Washington’s children by increasing the pool of primary care providers where they are needed.