Access to medicaid providers: availability of mental health services for children and adolescents in child welfare in Louisiana. Issue 2 (14th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scheeringa, Michael S.; Singer, Alyssa M.; Mai, Thao Anh; Miron, Devi
• Is Part Of: Journal of public child welfare. Volume 14:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 161
• Page End: 173
• Publication Date: 2020-03-14
• Subjects: Child welfare -- access to care -- insurance networks -- Medicaid; Child welfare -- United States -- Periodicals; 362.70973
• DOI: 10.1080/15548732.2018.1537904
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1554-8732

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The purpose of the study was to determine the level of access that youths in child welfare have to mental health providers in a single state. Mystery shoppers called every provider publicly advertised in Medicaid managed care organization networks. Results showed that 25.4% of the advertised network was able to schedule a new appointment for a child in Department of Children and Family Services guardianship. There were 9.7 accessible providers of any discipline (MD, PhD, or licensed masters-level clinician) per 10, 000 Medicaid-enrolled youths in the population. The level of access to MDs was 4.1 times lower than the nationally recommended level.