The goals of the Catalyst Center are to: promote universal, continuous, and affordable coverage for all CYSHCN; close benefit and financing gaps; promote payment for additional services; and build sustainable capacity to promote financing of care. Center objectives are to:

  • Provide support and technical assistance to state Title V programs and their partners to maximize access for CYSHCN to health insurance and other relevant services as provided under the ACA and to other innovations in health care reform and the financing of health care delivery;
  • Engage Federal, state, and community stakeholders and partners in ensuring that implementation of the ACA and other health care delivery financing efforts address the needs of CYSHCN;
  • Support efforts to improve coordination between Title V, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), especially related to care coordination, Early, and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) coverage, enrollment, and quality improvement;
  • Identify and support policy and program initiatives at the state and Federal level to reduce disparities in health insurance coverage and other health care financing among underserved CYSCHN, including Hispanic and African American children, older children and those with the most significant functional limitations;
  • Monitor, analyze and report on emerging Federal and state trends, legislation, regulations and other relevant policy proposals related to health insurance and other health care financing;
  • Identify and support innovative financing strategies to improve reimbursement for services used by CYSHCN;
  • Promote strategies and policies to finance additional services, which generally are not covered by private and/or public insurance;
  • Monitor progress in achieving the health insurance core outcome and document the National Center’s impact on improving access to adequate health insurance.

This project (U1TMC31757) is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $500,000, with no financing by nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government; HRSA Project Officer Sarah Beth McLellan.

Project Impact

The Catalyst Center has had significant impact in many domains. For example, 627 state policy makers, family leaders, and others “attended” Catalyst Center Medicaid webinars. Our Medicaid tutorial was downloaded 444 times. Our applied research is the first to identify best practices in state strategies to finance care for children with special health care needs. We worked with 14 states to analyze and improve their Medicaid benefits for CYSHCN.

PROJECT NEWS

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