III

Lovelace Community Health Plan

Forty five percent of children 0 3 years of age in New Mexico are currently enrolled in

Medicaid.  In working with the New Mexico Department of Health, Lovelace

Community Health Plan learned that the state's average age of referral to its early

intervention program was higher than the national average and the percent of 0 3 

year olds served by early intervention services is lower than national averages (Figure

10).  Not only were fewer children being referred to early intervention services, but

they were being referred at a later age.

Figure 11: Early Intervention Rates for New Mexico and US Medicaid Services

United States

New Mexico

Percent of 0 1 year olds served 

0.9%

0.4%

by Early Intervention

Percent of 0 3 year olds served 

2.1%

1.4%

by Early Intervention

Average age of referral to Early 

15.5 months

16.8 months

Intervention services

Lovelace set the ambitious goal of improving referral practices and making early inter 

vention services accessible earlier in the life of a child.  To pursue this goal, Lovelace

participated in a statewide Senate Joint Memorial Task Force to examine appropriate 

ness and timeliness of referrals to the Family Infant Toddler program (FIT), New

Mexico's early intervention program. The task force met over the summer of 2003 and

identified barriers to appropriate and early referrals, and developed and prioritized

strategies for addressing those barriers.

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Lovelace focused on integrating the use of standardized developmental screeners dur 

ing well child visits as a way of improving screening and referral rates.  They used the

BCAP Quality Framework to implement the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and

improve referral practices at pilot provider sites.

IDENTIFICATION/STRATIFICATION 

PILOT SITE IDENTIFICATION

Lovelace chose pilot practice sites representing urban, suburban, frontier, and rural

counties.  Four pilot sites were chosen and 25 providers agreed to participate in the

pilot project.

MEMBER IDENTIFICATION

Lovelace aimed to improve data tracking of children in need of EPSDT well child

exams.

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More discussion about the work of the Senate Joint Memorial Task Force can be found on page 40.

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