Information and Updates
Children's Health and Well Being During the Coronavirus Epidemic
The debate over school openings has highlighted the implications of the coronavirus pandemic for children and their families. While experts continue to gather data on children’s risk for contracting and transmitting coronavirus, current research suggests that though children are more likely to be asymptomatic and less likely to experience severe disease than adults, they are capable of transmitting to both other children and adults. In addition to the risk of disease and illness, COVID-19 has led to changes in schooling, health services delivery, and other disruptions of normal routines that will likely affect children’s health and well-being, regardless of whether they are infected. Read more.
How Much Does the Federal Government Spend on Programs Benefitting Children?
How our government spends money, and who benefits from that spending, reflects our national priorities. Today’s investment in children affects tomorrow’s workforce; economy; and educational, criminal justice, and health care systems. Here is the link to the report.
Number of Uninsured Children Increasing
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Health Policy Institute has released its annual report on uninsured children. The report shows that Florida had a statistically significant increase in both the uninsured number of children and the uninsured rate from 2016-2018. Florida also had the second highest number of uninsured children, only behind Texas. Here is the link to the report.
Demonstrating Value in Pediatrics
The Children’s Hospital Association has released the “Demonstrating Value in Pediatrics: A Measure Menu, Workbook & Guidance for Value-based Care, Payment and Reporting Programs” resource.
This resource is designed to save hospitals and health systems significant time and effort in identifying meaningful quality measures for value-based programs. The Demonstrating Value in Pediatric resource includes: a measure menu listing 67 carefully vetted pediatric measures (an Excel workbook), and a report including the consensus-based vetting approach, seven steps to successful measure selection and use, stepwise guidance on the use of the workbook, and commentary on gaps and opportunities in pediatric quality and measurement
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What the Report (PDF file) Covers: Chapter 1. Child Health and Quality Measurement Chapter 2. Demonstrating Value in Pediatrics Measure Menu Chapter 3. Using the Demonstrating Value in Pediatrics Measure Menu and Measure Implementation Guidance Chapter 4. Gaps and Opportunities for the Demonstrating Value in Pediatrics Measure Menu White Paper: What Matters Most to Children and Families (Appendix C) Four Case Studies on Opportunities for Quality Improvement (Appendix D) What the Measure Menu (Excel file) Covers, for each of the 67 measures: Measure information (e.g., title, description, topic, steward) Link to measure specifications and other information The inclusion of the measure in existing national and regional programs (e.g., Medicaid Child Core set, National Standards for CYSHCN Measures Compendium) Used by children’s hospital in select quality programs (based on a survey of children’s hospitals in 2016) You can find the report and the measure menu workbook on the Children’s Hospital Association website. |
2018 State Child Health Policy Trends
The Children’s Hospital Association has released the 2018 State Child Health Policy Trends Report. The report touches on Medicaid reimbursement, supplemental payments, financing mechanisms, managed care, delivery system and payment reforms, and eligibility restrictions; the private insurance market; behavioral health; and emerging issues at the state level. Read the report.
Florida's Early Childhood Tests Go Too Far in the Wrong Direction
Several respected Florida organizations are calling on the state to scrap the STAR assessment. Read more from Forbes.
Department of Justice Position on Texas Lawsuit Calling for ACA Repeal – Implications for Children’s Coverage
On June 7, the Department of Justice filed a brief in the case Texas v. Azar, which states that the department will not defend key private insurance consumer protections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the pending case’schallenge of the law’s constitutionality. Specifically, the administration asserts that the law’s community rating and guaranteed issue requirements are unconstitutional as a result of the repeal of the individual mandate tax penalty in the 2017 tax reform bill. The Children’s Hospital Association has prepared background information about the impact of this on children’s health.
Trump Administration’s Public Charge Proposal Could Impact 2.1 Million People in the Sunshine State
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Issues Fourth in Series of Briefs on the Future of Children's Health Care Coverage
Medicaid, along with CHIP, serves four out of five young children in poverty. Yet Medicaid can do more to elevate the needs of these children. Prioritizing young children in Medicaid through cross-sector, innovative practice change has the potential to improve their lifetime trajectories, overall population health and long-run savings.
This new brief examines ways for state and federal policymakers to use Medicaid and CHIP to more effectively put young children on the best path for success in school and in life.