Social Work Today E-Zine

Expansion of Medicaid's Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program in California has significantly improved children's access to mental health services, reports a study in a recent issue of Medical Care.

The gains appear greatest in rural communities and areas with historically low levels of state funding for mental health services, where children living in poverty have high rates of mental health issues that are not appropriately treated. The lead author was Lonnie R. Snowden, PhD, of University of California, Berkeley.

Under a 1995 expansion of the EPSDT program, mental health benefits were "carved out" from other EPSDT benefits and assigned to California county mental health plans. Mental health benefits paid by Medi-Cal (the California Medicaid program) increased sharply after the expansion—from $121 million in 1994 to 1995 to $446 million in 1999 to 2000—with increased use of outpatient treatment and reduced use of crisis services.

The current study focused on how the changes affected children's access to mental health services—a major goal of the EPSDT expansion. The analysis included data from 53 county mental health plans from 1992-93 to 2001-02.

— Source: Wolters Kluwer Health: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins