CommunityCARE

CommunityCARE set a goal to increase awareness about KIDMED

47

program ser 

vices. A brochure,  Improving Your Health,  is mailed to every new eligible child

and once a year during open enrollment.  The brochure describes the  KIDMED 

program and the importance of regularly scheduled well child visits, periodic devel 

opmental screening, and immunizations.

48

Molina Healthcare of Michigan

Through member outreach, Molina Healthcare sought to educate parents regarding

the components of the EPSDT visit. For its pilot project, the health plan developed

a new member education mailing in English and Spanish that explained the compo 

nents of a well child visit as well as health tips, milestones, and available resources.

The accompanying letter included a tear off portion for members to bring to their

well child care visit for the practitioner to fill out and return to the health plan.

49

The letters were mailed every 60 days or until the child received all recommended

EPSDT visits. Parents who received member outreach mailings from Molina asked

more questions and brought up issues about their child's development, growth, and

behavior.

50

Member Incentives/Rewards

A few health plans in the workgroup offered member incentives as a part of member

outreach efforts.  For example, Virginia Premier Health Plan offered a free Sears por 

trait to targeted high risk mothers who brought their children in for timely well 

child visits and developmental screening.

To encourage literacy promotion and positive parent child interactions, Molina

Healthcare of Michigan sent age appropriate, bilingual board books to each child

who was brought in for an EPSDT visit. Molina confirmed the visit through a check 

off list from providers indicating that a developmental assessment was completed.

In both of these cases, the health plans learned that the real incentive for members

was to have an opportunity to discuss their child's health and well being with a

health care provider who was listening. By piloting the incentive approaches with

targeted populations using rapid cycle improvement techniques, the health plans

quickly learned that these member incentives did not correlate with increased well 

child visit rates, or with developmental screening rates. Both plans subsequently

stopped their incentive strategies and enhanced focus on providing educational

materials to help members better understand age related milestones and bring con 

cerns to their provider's attention.

Learning from Members

CommunityCARE, Louisiana's primary care case management program discovered

that approximately 30 percent of members, age 0 21, missed scheduled appointments,

according to self reported data from two pilot sites. CommunityCARE conducted a

nurse administered member survey via telephone to understand and evaluate the reasons

for missed well visit appointments, and to improve both well visit and standardized

47

KIDMED is the name of Louisiana's EPSDT program.

48

Community Care's  Improving Your Health  brochure is available in the online toolkit at www.chcs.org. 

49 

Molina Healthcare's member mailing materials are available in the online toolkit at www.chcs.org. 

50 

Center for Health Care Strategies,  Improving Developmental Screening: One Child at a Time,  September 2004, http://www.chcs.org/info url3969/info 

url_show.htm?doc_id=241085.

25