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This is a publication of the Consortium for Children and Youth with Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education under grant number H133B001200.

The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Education

The Impact of Health Plan Characteristics on Health Care Utilization Among Children with Special Health Care Needs

Lead Investigator
Marji Erickson Warfield, Ph.D.

Heller School
Brandeis University

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The purpose of this research project is to determine the impact of cost control strategies on the provision of health care to children with disabilities with special health care needs (SHCN) by examining the effects of a range of public and private managed care arrangements on health care utilization, problems with accessing needed services, and family satisfaction with services. We are conducting two related studies. The first study (Study 2A) examines service utilization and associated costs of health services for children with SHCN served in a variety of health plans. This study is utilizing both state Medicaid and private health plan databases. These databases permit a broad range of analyses on children with SHCN covered by Medicaid and privately purchased health plans. The strength of this study is the quality and completeness of the data on health services and costs and our ability to conduct planned comparisons of these outcomes for children with different types of disabilities and health conditions based on the types of plans in which they are enrolled.

The second study (Study 2B) involves the development and conduct of a new survey of approximately 2100 families of children with disabilities with SHCN. This survey will permit a more focused examination of the types of problems with access to services experienced by families, and the extent to which their child's plan has implemented cost containment strategies that affect the families' ability to obtain needed services.

The goals of Study 2B allow us to combine the objectives of RP1 (access problems) with the objectives of RP2 (impact of cost containment strategies) into a major study that links these two related issues.

Research Team Lead Investigator:
Marji Erickson Warfield, Ph.D.
Heller School, Mailstop 035
Brandeis University
P.O. Box 9110
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
Tel: (781) 736-3832
Fax: (781) 736-3864
Email: mew@brandeis.edu

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Consortium Partners

[ Family Voices ]
[ Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development ]
[ The Heller School at Brandeis University ]
[ Institute for Child Health Policy ]

Page Last Modified: September 2004