Alexy Arauz Boudreau

Care Coordination and Unmet Specialty Care Among Children With Special Health Care Needs

OBJECTIVES: Care coordination and the medical home may ensure access to specialty care. Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have higher rates of specialty care use and unmet need compared with the general pediatric population. We hypothesized that care coordination, regardless of whether it was provided in a medical home, would decrease unmet specialty care needs among CSHCN and that the effect of care coordination would be greater among low-income families. METHODS: Secondary data analysis of participants in the 2009–2010 National Survey of CSHCN who reported unmet specialty care needs and for whom care coordination and medical home status could be determined (n = 18 905). Logistic regression models explored the association of unmet need with care coordination and medical home status adjusting for household income. RESULTS: Approximately 9% of CSHCN reported having unmet specialty care needs. Care coordination was associated with reduced odds of unmet specialty care need (without a medical home, odds ratio: 0.63, 95% confidence interval: 0.47–0.86; within a medical home, odds ratio: 0.22, 95% confidence interval: 0.16–0.29) with a greater reduction among those receiving care coordination within a medical home versus those receiving care coordination without a medical home. We did not find differences in the impact of care coordination by percentage of the federal poverty level. CONCLUSIONS: Care coordination is associated with family report of decreased unmet specialty care needs among CSHCN independent of household income. The effect of care coordination is greater when care is received in a medical home.

Medical Home Transformation in Pediatric Primary Care—What Drives Change?

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to characterize essential factors to the medical home transformation of high-performing pediatric primary care practices 6 to 7 years after their participation in a national medical home learning collaborative. METHODS We evaluated the 12 primary care practice teams having the highest Medical Home Index (MHI) scores after participation in a national medical home learning collaborative with current MHI scores, a clinician staff questionnaire (assessing adaptive reserve), and semistructured interviews. We reviewed factors that emerged from interviews and analyzed domains and subdomains for their agreement with MHI and adaptive reserve domains and subthemes using a process of triangulation. RESULTS At 6 to 7 years after learning collaborative participation, 4 essential medical home attributes emerged as drivers of transformation: (1) a culture of quality improvement, (2) family-centered care with parents as improvement partners, (3) team-based care, and (4) care coordination. These high-performing practices developed comprehensive, family-centered, planned care processes including flexible access options, population approaches, and shared care plans. Eleven practices evolved to employ care coordinators. Family satisfaction appeared to stem from better access, care, and safety, and having a strong relationship with their health care team. Physician and staff satisfaction was high even while leadership activities strained personal time. CONCLUSIONS Participation in a medical home learning collaborative stimulated, but did not complete, medical home changes in 12 pediatric practices. Medical home transformation required continuous development, ongoing quality improvement, family partnership skills, an attitude of teamwork, and strong care coordination functions.

Medicaid Managed Care and the Unmet Need for Mental Health Care among Children with Special Health Care Needs

OBJECTIVE To determine the association between Medicaid managed care pediatric behavioral health programs and unmet need for mental health care among children with special health care needs (CSHCN). DATA SOURCE The National Survey of CSHCN (2000-2002), using subsets of 4,400 CSHCN with Medicaid and 1,856 CSHCN with Medicaid and emotional problems. Additional state-level sources were used. STUDY DESIGN Multilevel models investigated the association between managed care program type (carve-out, integrated) or fee-for-service (FFS) and reported unmet mental health care need. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS The National Survey of CSHCN conducted telephone interviews with a sample representative at both the national and state levels. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In multivariable models, among CSHCN with only Medicaid, living in states with Medicaid managed care (odds ratio [OR]=1.81; 95 percent confidence interval: 1.04-3.15) or carve-out programs (OR=1.93; 1.01-3.69) were associated with greater reported unmet mental health care need compared with FFS programs. Among CSHCN on Medicaid with emotional problems, the association between managed care and unmet need was stronger (OR=2.48; 1.38-4.45). CONCLUSIONS State Medicaid pediatric behavioral health managed care programs were associated with greater reported unmet mental health care need than FFS programs among CSHCN insured by Medicaid, particularly for those with emotional problems.

Household Language, Parent Developmental Concerns, and Child Risk for Developmental Disorder

BACKGROUND Provider elicitation of parent developmental and behavioral (DB) concerns is the foundation of DB surveillance. Language differences may affect whether providers assess parental DB concerns. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare children in English versus Spanish primary language households by risk for DB disorder and provider elicitation of parental developmental and behavioral concerns. METHODS The 2003 National Survey of Childrens Health was used to compare 29,692 children, aged 0 to 71 months, who received preventive care in the previous 12 months and were in English versus Spanish primary language households. Using logistic regression, we tested the association of household primary language with child risk of developmental and behavioral disorder and parent-reported elicitation of developmental and behavioral concerns at health care visits. RESULTS After adjusting for sociodemographic differences, children in Spanish primary language households were less likely than children in English primary language households to be at risk for DB disorder (40.5% vs 40.8%; AOR [adjusted odds ratio] 0.68, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55-0.85). Parents in Spanish primary language households reported less provider elicitation of developmental and behavioral concerns compared to all English primary language households (31.0% vs 43.7%; AOR 0.70, 95% CI, 0.57-0.85), but similar rates of elicitation compared to Hispanic English primary language households. Among households with children at moderate/high risk for DB disorder, parents in Spanish primary language households reported less elicitation of concerns than parents in English primary language households (AOR 0.63, 95% CI, 0.41-0.96). CONCLUSION Parents in Spanish primary language households reported lower child risk for developmental and behavioral disorder and less provider elicitation of developmental and behavioral concerns. These findings suggest that primary language may affect risk for developmental and behavioral disorder and likelihood of DB surveillance in children.

Care Coordination Over Time in Medical Homes for Children With Special Health Care Needs

OBJECTIVES: To explore how care coordination changes conceptually and practically in primary care practices when implementing the medical home and to identify reasons for different types of changes. METHODS: Six years after a 2003–2004 national learning collaborative to implement the medical home model for children with special health care needs, we examined care coordination in 12 pediatric practices with the highest postintervention Medical Home Index scores, indicating high level of adoption of the model. Data included interviews of 48 clinicians, care coordinators, and parents and medical record reviews of 60 patients with special health care needs receiving care in these practices. RESULTS: Initially, care coordination activities were prompted by patients’ acute problems, and over time activities, tools, and policies were implemented to avert many such problems and expand the scope of services offered to patients. Example activities were making previsit calls with families, writing care plans, developing relationships with community agencies, and tracking referrals. Although some activities were common across practices, the persons involved and efforts toward different activities varied with practice context. Drivers included motivation and creativity of medical home teams, organizational changes, funding to expand care coordinator positions, protected time for such activities, and adoption of electronic record systems. CONCLUSIONS: In high-performing medical homes, care coordination activities changed from being mostly reactive to patients’ episodic needs to being more systematically proactive and comprehensive. This shift was promoted by factors external and internal to the practice. Ensuring these factors in medical home implementation may accelerate adoption of proactive care coordination activities.

The Medical Home: Relationships With Family Functioning for Children With and Without Special Health Care Needs

OBJECTIVE In this study we tested the association of the medical home with family functioning for children without and with special health care needs (CSHCN). METHODS We used data from the 2007 National Survey of Childrens Health to run multivariate logistic regressions to test the association between having a medical home and family functioning (difficulty with parental coping, parental aggravation, childcare/work issues, and missed school days). We further assessed interactions of CSHCN status with having a medical home. RESULTS In adjusted analysis, parents of children with a medical home were less likely to report difficulty with parental coping (odds ratio [OR] 0.26 [0.19-0.36]), parental aggravation (OR 0.54 [0.45-0.65]), childcare/work issues (OR 0.72 [0.61-0.84]), and missed school days (OR 0.87[0.78-0.97]) for their children than those without a medical home. Using interaction terms, we found that for most outcomes, the medical home had a greater association for CSHCN compared with healthy peers, with odds ratios ranging 0.40 (CI 0.22-0.56) for parental aggravation to 0.67 (CI0.52-0.86) for missed school days. CONCLUSIONS We show that the medical home is associated with better family functioning. All children may benefit from receiving care in a medical home, but CSHCN, who have greater needs, may particularly benefit from this enhanced model of care.

Medical versus nonmedical immunization exemptions for child care and school attendance

Routine childhood immunizations against infectious diseases are an integral part of our public health infrastructure. They provide direct protection to the immunized individual and indirect protection to children and adults unable to be immunized via the effect of community immunity. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have regulations requiring proof of immunization for child care and school attendance as a public health strategy to protect children in these settings and to secondarily serve as a mechanism to promote timely immunization of children by their caregivers. Although all states and the District of Columbia have mechanisms to exempt school attendees from specific immunization requirements for medical reasons, the majority also have a heterogeneous collection of regulations and laws that allow nonmedical exemptions from childhood immunizations otherwise required for child care and school attendance. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports regulations and laws requiring certification of immunization to attend child care and school as a sound means of providing a safe environment for attendees and employees of these settings. The AAP also supports medically indicated exemptions to specific immunizations as determined for each individual child. The AAP views nonmedical exemptions to school-required immunizations as inappropriate for individual, public health, and ethical reasons and advocates for their elimination.

Strengthening integration of clinical and public health systems to prevent maternal-child obesity in the First 1,000 Days: A Collective Impact approach

INTRODUCTION Obesity interventions may be most effective if they begin in the earliest stages of life, support changes across family, clinical, and public health systems, and address socio-contextual factors. METHODS The First 1000Days is a systematic program starting in early pregnancy lasting through the first 24months of infancy to prevent obesity among low-income mother-infant pairs in three community health centers in Massachusetts. The program uses a Collective Impact approach to create the infrastructure for sustained, system-wide changes for obesity prevention across early life clinical and public health services, including Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Adult Medicine, Behavioral Health, Nutrition, Community Health, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and the Maternal, Infant and Childhood Home Visiting program. Program components include 1) staff and provider training; 2) enhanced gestational weight gain and infant overweight tracking; 3) universal screening of adverse health behaviors and socio-contextual factors; 4) universal patient navigation to support individual behavior change and social needs, while strengthening integration of clinical and public health services; 5) individualized health coaching for mother-infant pairs at high risk of obesity; and 6) educational materials to support behavior change. RESULTS A quasi-experimental evaluation design will examine changes, between 2015 and 2019, in gestational weight gain and prevalence of infant overweight from 0 to 24months of age. CONCLUSIONS The First 1000Days program will examine the effectiveness of an early life obesity prevention program for mother-infant pairs. If successful, the program could provide a model for chronic disease prevention and health promotion among vulnerable families starting in early life.