The Health Care Reform and Tracking Project Issues New Promising Approaches Series
Tracking Behavioral Health Services to Children and Adolescents and Their Families in Publicly-Financed Managed Care Systems, written by Shelia A. Pires, is the first paper in a new series of the Health Care Reform and Tracking Project (HCRTP) co-funded by two federal agencies —the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the Department of Education.
The Promising Approaches for Behavioral Health Services to Children and Adolescents and Their Families in Managed Care Systems highlights promising strategies or approaches related to a specific aspect of managed care systems as they affect children with behavioral health disorders. The first paper briefly discusses the design and financing issues related to managed children's behavioral health care that have surfaced through the HCRTP, and describes seven approaches (three statewide and four local) for children and adolescents with behavioral health disorders and their families. It concludes with a summary of common challenges and characteristics across approaches.
The HCRTP was initiated in 1994 in response to the rapid change in public sector health and human service systems. States, and, increasingly, local governments are applying managed care technologies to the delivery of mental health and substance abuse services (together referred to as “behavioral health services”) for children and adolescents and their families in Medicaid, mental health, substance abuse, child welfare, and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) systems. These public sector managed care reforms are the focus of the Health Care Reform Tracking Project. The Tracking Project is the only ongoing national study exploring whether and how different kinds of managed care approaches and characteristics have differing effects on this population of children and adolescents and their families and on the systems of care that serve them.
Since 1995, the project has gathered extensive data on the early stages of implementation of Medicaid managed care and has published a number of reports, including surveys of all 50 states in 1995, 1997 and 2000 to determine the status of their behavioral health care reforms; and impact analyses in 1997, 1999, and 2001 summarizing the findings of site visits throughout the nation.. A new focus was incorporated into the 2000 State Survey, to identify promising strategies, approaches, and features of managed care systems that can be studied and disseminated in an effort to assist states and communities to better meet the needs of children with behavioral health treatment needs and their families in the context of managed care.
The project’s findings are intended to be useful to public officials, families, managed care entities, providers, advocates, and other key stakeholders involved in and affected by public sector managed care.
The new Promising Approaches Series draws on the findings of the HCRTP to date. The Papers are intended as technical assistance resources for states and communities as they refine their managed care systems to better serve children and families.
The HCRTP is a component of the research agenda of the Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health, part of the Department of Child & Family Studies, University of South Florida. The Center’s mission is to improve services and outcomes for children with serious emotional/behavioral disabilities and their families. For additional information and access to reports, visit the HCRPT web site at http://rtckids.fmhi.usf.edu/study05.cfm, or contact Mary Armstrong 813-974-4601 or email armstron@fmhi.usf.edu..
The Research and Training Center for Children’s Mental Health is part of the Department of Child and Family Studies at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida, and is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education, and the Center for Mental Health Services, SAMHSA.