New Resources on Children's Health Care

Medicaid provides quality health coverage for 31 million children, including essential medical, vision, hearing and dental screenings and services under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) services. EPSDT services are essential to providing children the routine and preventive care they need to grow into healthy adults. Please check out these new resources for advocates to help ensure that children receive the health screenings and treatment services they need to thrive.

 

NHeLP's website now features an interactive map -- State EPSDT Information -- providing direct links to the Medicaid agencies' EPSDT divisions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

 

The Georgetown Center for Children and Families' State Snapshots of Children's Coverage provides state-by-state fact sheets on children's health coverage through Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced the publication of the updated Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents, which outlines guidelines for 31 health supervision visits, plus the prenatal visit. AAP also updated its Bright Futures Periodicity Schedule, adopted by many state EPSDT programs to schedule screenings and assessments recommended at each well-child visit from infancy through adolescence.

 

We hope you find these resources helpful as we work to implement EPSDT's goal, artfully stated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, "to assure that children get the health care they need when they need it - the right care to the right child at the right time in the right setting."