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The California State Auditor released a report requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee regarding the Department of Health Care Services’ oversight of the delivery of preventive services to children in Medi-Cal. Nearly half of all children in California receive medical services and care through the Medi-Cal program. However, findings in the audit led to the conclusion that California’s utilization rate for childhood preventive services remains below 50%. Unfortunately, that means an average of 2.4 million California children being served by Medi-Cal have not received required preventive services in the last 5 years. While there were several reasons given for the lagging service delivery the one that is perhaps the most concerning is the lack of access to care as a result of a limited number of health care providers that are willing to accept children on Medi-Cal. This has significant implications for children in the state and even more so for children with complex special health care needs who are in the Medi-Cal program. The final report details several key recommendations to improve the health of children in Medi-Cal. To view the report in its entirety visit: https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2018-111.pdf
Teresa Anderson, Policy Director, The Arc & UCP Collaboration