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Published Sunday, February 05, 2012 12:16 AM By MAGGIE KIELY
maggie.kiely@theeagle.com

The Department of State Health Services recently began using an assessment form created by a team of Texas A&M System researchers to better evaluate how much home care is required for children with special needs covered by Medicaid.

A team of researchers from the Department of Educational Psychology, the Public Policy Research Institute and the Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health began developing the assessment forms in 2007 when they were contracted for the project by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The state agency oversees distribution of personal care services for people under the age of 21.

State officials were directed to implement a new personal care services assessment instrument as part of an agreement that came out of a 1999 lawsuit filed on behalf of special-needs children who claimed they were denied the in-home Medicaid services they needed.

The new forms were developed to more effectively determine the number of personal care services hours families should receive, and also to make the programs more accessible to low-income families whom researchers say often aren’t aware of the available services or the level of their child’s needs.

As part of its research — which included a study of the 5,400 Texas children who received Medicaid personal care services in 2009 — the team found that the average annual cost for a child covered by Medicaid health care is about $2,000, while on average $33,000 was spent yearly on Medicaid services for the special-needs kids who were the focus of the study.

Charles Phillips, a regents professor with the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, said many personal care services focus on improving daily living skills such as eating and preparing food, using the bathroom and bathing, dressing and hygiene, and taking medicine.

“All of these children have one or more chronic illnesses and live in lower-income households across the state,” Phillips said. “Personal care services involve home health personnel assisting the family with care for the child in performing activities of daily living.”

To develop an assessment form capable of determining the level of personal care services a family needs, researchers focused on three key issues: The amount of assistance a child needs to complete daily tasks; how their health conditions affect their ability to perform daily living skills; and what may be keeping the child’s parent or guardian from assisting in daily tasks, such as a job or other children to take care of.

According to the team’s research, of the special-needs kids studied:

* 46 percent were intellectually disabled

* Half had a combination of psychiatric, behavior and developmental problems

* More than 70 percent required supervision to help them make safe and logical decisions

* About 47 percent were completely dependent on assistance when it came to performing daily living activities

In addition, the study found that more than a third of the adults caring for a special-needs child between ages 4 and 20 worked full time, and 75 percent were responsible for other children as well.

Iris Woolley, executive director of Junction 505, which works with adults with disabilities, said making services more effective and accessible for special-needs children has long-term effects for the patients and their families.

Woolley, who has a background in special education, said there’s a noticeable difference between those who received specialized care at an early age and those who didn’t.

In addition to Phillips, the research team consisted of Ashweeta Patnaik, James Dyer, Catherine Hawes, Constance Fournier, Timothy Elliott, Joshua Johnson and Emily Naiser.

For more information about the development of the project, visit http://pcaf.tamu.edu/.

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Source: http://www.theeagle.com/am/Formulaic-response--6949959

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