POLICY ADVISORY-2: STATE LAWS ABOUT CARE COORDINATION
State laws and policy
Congress appropriates money for the federal government to operate the Medicaid program. That program authorizes care coordination; click here to learn about federal laws and care coordination. To gain access to the federal funds, however, the state must apply to the federal Medicaid agency to request the money as part of the state Medicaid plan or as a pilot project.
Your state legislature may supplement the federal funding with states funds. The legislature’s decision to do so is usually based on cost considerations; coordinated care means better health and fewer costs.
As an advocate, you can partner with your family health center to improve your state’s laws and administrative structures, creating or improving systems of coordinated care.
Thirteen states have enacted laws authorizing medical home care coordination: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia. You can review these laws to learn how these states are implementing care coordination. To learn about medical home initiatives in your state, visit the medical home state map.
Affecting policy is not just about passing laws. It is about collaboration and partnership. Listen to excerpts from an interview with Richard Antonelli, a physician, and Molly Cole, a family advocate, to learn more about effective state-level policy and how you can improve the policies in your state.
Hear audio interview with Molly and Rich (PC)
Hear audio interview with Molly and Rich (MAC)
Action Steps
- Contact your state’s Title V program to learn if your state is participating in medical home initiatives that offer care coordination services. You can search for your state’s Title V Director at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal Child Health Bureau website or link directly to the medical home map.
- Stay informed about health care legislation in your state; contact your state’s Developmental Disabilities Council to learn about specific laws or bills regarding medical home or care coordination.
- If your state does not have legislation pertaining to care coordination through a medical home, you and other concerned citizens (families and professionals) can advocate for new laws, using other states’ laws as models.
- If your state authorizes care coordination, work with your local chapter of Family Voices, F2F Health Information Centers, or Parent to Parent to discuss how to improve these services for families of children with disabilities.
- Determine how your state uses Medicaid funds or its own funds for care coordination services; work with your child’s case manager to learn which care coordination services are allowable under Medicaid and discuss how you can bill for these services.
- Be informed; join the Medical Home e-Newsletter to learn about care coordination policies and programs within medical home initiatives in other states.