The number of Kent County children who rely on Medicaid for their medical coverage increases every year; it’s now more than one in three. As that number grows, it becomes more and more difficult for low-income families to access primary healthcare. The Children’s Healthcare Access Program is intended to help children get the care and support that they need to stay healthy.
The primary goal of the Children’s Healthcare Access Program is to improve health outcomes among children on Medicaid while better utilizing existing resources and decreasing costs.
The Children’s Healthcare Access Program is a partnership involving Priority Health, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, Cherry Street Health Services, private pediatric practices, numerous human service agencies, and private foundations. 15,000 children in Kent County—all enrolled in Priority Health Medicaid—are part of the program.
This collaborative, community-based medical home improvement program is strengthening quality and access by:
- Providing assistance to primary care practices to improve their “medical homeness.”
- Creating more openings in private practices for children with Medicaid.
- Working with partners to offer more evening hours and same-day appointments.
- Providing home-based education and coordination of support services for families.
A team of evaluators, led by SRA International, is conducting a comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of our work.
Children’s Healthcare Access Program Year 1 Report provides the results of the evaluation of the first year of the demonstration project.
To create the additional openings, Priority Health is increasing the Medicaid reimbursement for sick child office visits at private practices. In exchange, the practices are accepting more Medicaid patients.
The early results are encouraging. A demonstration project began August 1, 2008, and after one year of the program, emergency department usage among children assigned to participating providers is down nine percent, and hospital admissions are down more than three percent. The Children’s Healthcare Access Program is now in its second year, and all partners are working together to build on the success of the first year.
What is a medical home? It’s the one place families can take their children for all of their primary healthcare—regular checkups, immunizations, and treatment when they are sick. All children should have a medical home that is accessible, family-centered, continuous, comprehensive, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective.
The Children’s Healthcare Access Program was started in response to tremendous community needs. First Steps sponsored a study that looked at the health of publicly insured children compared to the health of children with private insurance. Both in Kent County and in Michigan, children with Medicaid have poorer health outcomes:
- Significantly higher hospitalization rate
- More severe illnesses resulting in hospitalization
- Significantly higher rate of respiratory illnesses, such as asthma
- More visits to the emergency room
- Higher readmission rates for newborns after discharge from the hospital
Those disparities are costly. We estimate the cost savings statewide would be between $150 and $200 million a year if publicly insured children in Michigan had the same hospitalization rate as privately insured children.
Download Data on Children’s Health
For more information about the Children’s Healthcare Access Program, contact Maureen Kirkwood, Program Manager or Dr. Tom Peterson, Medical Director.
