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CareSource promotes lead testing for children
DAYTON, Ohio, May 7, 2004 – CareSource, Ohio’s largest Medicaid managed-care organization, goes the extra mile to promote blood lead level testing for children who are members of its health-care plan.
The Ohio Medicaid program requires that children ages 1 and 2 receive a blood lead level test as part of their Healthchek, or well-child, exams, which also include a physical checkup, health history, immunizations and assessments of development, nutrition, vision, hearing and dental health. CareSource recommends that children receive 10 Healthchek exams by age 2 and one exam a year thereafter.
CareSource heavily promotes Healthchek exams to both members and health-care providers. We send out postcard reminders to parents of members who are due for an exam and we remind them with telephone messages. For providers, CareSource gives out Healthchek reference sheets for keeping track of all the components of the exam, and marks members due for an exam on the membership lists that primary care physicians get each month.
CareSource also frequently includes articles and reminders about Healthchek exams in the newsletters it sends to members and providers. Finally, as part of its extra benefits for members, CareSource provides financial incentives to members who bring their children in for Healthchek exams and immunizations, as well as transportation to 15 doctors’ appointments a year.
Besides including blood lead level testing as part of Healthchek exams, CareSource makes it easy for providers to perform the tests by allowing them to use the filter-paper method as an alternative to venous testing. Rather than sending the child to a laboratory to have blood drawn by a needle, the provider can draw two drops of blood through a fingerstick in his or her own office, then send the blood on filter paper to MedTox Laboratories to be tested. Only if the test shows a high level of lead will the child undergo the more invasive blood-test procedure.
Although CareSource heavily promotes Healthchek exams and allows the filter-paper method for blood lead level testing, both the plan and the state of Ohio recognize that the percentage of children being tested is too low. For this reason, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has made blood lead level screening for children one of its performance measures for Medicaid managed-care plans, with a goal of testing 45 percent of 1-year-olds and 35 percent of 2-year-olds in Medicaid managed-care plans this year.
If a Medicaid managed-care plan does not meet this goal, it will be penalized financially by ODJFS. CareSource sees the 2004 goal as an intermediate and realistic step, and expects it to be raised in coming years.
About CareSource
CareSource is working diligently to meet this goal. We are training provider representatives on the importance of and methods for blood lead level testing so that they can raise awareness about the test among providers. CareSource and the state are also working to ensure that blood lead level tests done by county health departments are recorded in a central database and that information about tests done for CareSource members is relayed back to CareSource. We hope that by working with members, providers, MedTox, and state and county officials, CareSource can help raise the number of Ohio children receiving blood lead level tests.
Established in 1989, CareSource is a nonprofit group that serves Medicaid consumers in 13 Ohio counties -- Butler, Clark, Clermont, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Lorain, Montgomery, Pickaway, Stark, Summit and Warren. CareSource offers all services required by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, as well as extra benefits such as a 24-hour nurse hotline, a gift certificate program for pregnant members and transportation to some doctors’ appointments.
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