Medicaid Managed Care - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

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families responding had children covered through some form of managed care plan (65%),
while 15% reported that their child was not in a managed care plan and 19% did not
classify their child's plan but reported "other."
What were the Health Needs of the Children in the Suvey?
In every city, the majority of respondents reported having children with four or
more specific special health needs, suggesting that the responding families had children
with significant need for services. Among the 323 respondent questionnaires analyzed,
most families reported that their child had limitations in function (75.2%) as well as needs
for a variety of special health services, with the most commonly reported need (82%)
being therapeutic services (see Table 4). Although the respondents reported that their
children needed a large number of services, these children were also most often treated
outside of hospital settings as can be seen in Table 3. Within the past 12 months, while a
majority had seen their primag care provider more than 6 times and 42.3% had seen a
pediatric specialist more than 5 times, 49 0 h had not been seen in an emergency room, and
56% had not had a hospital stay. Respondents' children with special needs were from
every age range, although more were 3 and under, and fewer were over age 13.
What did these Faiulies Report about Health <strong>Care</strong>for their Child?
Family satisfaction with 27 health services and 25 aspects of service delivery are
reported in a variety of ways in Tables 6-16. A broad view of the findings are discussed
below. Please refer to the tables for more complete information.
1. Overall, services used by the most respondents received the hiehest satisfaction
ratines.' (Tables 7 & 8) For example:
* Services that over 70 % of respondents needed and used and with which more
than 50 % of respondents reported being "very satisfied" included: appropriate
routine well child care, a primary care provider with knowledge of my child's
special needs, prescription medications, and laboratory services
* "Delivery characteristics" that over 70% of respondents used and with which
more than 50%/a were "very satisfied" included: having time with my child's
'The percent of use of service was derived by dividing the total respondent population into the nuiimber
using the service (WN-) for each use category
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