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 HealthCheck
Program: Goals and Requirements
The District
of Columbia's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment
(EPSDT) program is known as HealthCheck (formerly called
the DC Well-Child Program and, more recently, Healthy Tots and Teens).
HealthCheck provides preventive primary health care for all Medicaid-eligible
youth living in the District of Columbia.
HealthCheck
Goals
The goal of the
DC HealthCheck Program is to assure available, accessible, and
appropriate quality health care for
all DC Medicaid-eligible
children from birth to age 21. Each child is to have a medical
home,
whether enrolled in an MCO or with a fee-for-service provider.
All medically necessary services
must be provided for children and teens
served through HealthCheck (regardless of whether the services
are included in the Medicaid State Plan).
Additional goals
are to:
HealthCheck
meets all EPSDT requirements for regularly scheduled
pediatric preventive health visits:
- Health and developmental
history
- Unclothed physical
exam
- Immunizations
- Lab tests, screenings,
and assessments
- Dental, vision,
and hearing services
- Health education
and anticipatory guidance
- Medically necessary
follow-up diagnostic and treatment services
Health Care
Tailored for DC Youth
HealthCheck is
specifically designed to meet the health care needs of the District's
urban, ethnically diverse youth.
The timing and frequency (periodicity) of these preventive health
services is provided at key developmental ages, based on the needs
of District youth. HealthCheck, for example, recommends initial lead
testing between 9 and 12 months of age, and includes sickle cell
screening as part of its universal newborn screening program.
Online Training to Enhance Preventive Care
To support DC
health professionals in providing quality care for Medicaid-eligible
youth,
the DC Department of
Health (DOH)’s
Medical Assistance
Administration (MAA) initiated development of
the HealthCheck Provider Education System. This online system includes
a pediatric preventive care curriculum and complementary resources. The
curriculum's core modules, presented in Section II (Health Supervision),
are based on three primary sources:
- HealthCheck Manual,
developed for DC providers of EPSDT services
- HealthCheck
Periodicity Schedule, based on the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommended
periodicity
- Bright Futures
guidelines, notably the health and developmental interview questions
and anticipatory guidance for each preventive
health visit
HealthCheck
service requirements are incorporated into the contracts of all
MCO providers. The final
pages of this Overview,
drawn
from the first two sections of the downloadable HealthCheck Manual,
present general and administrative information
for participating
providers. Topics include eligible participants
and providers, recipient
services, and program coordination and outreach.
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