Special Projects Fund

Grantee Name

Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies (COFCCA)

Funding Area

Special Projects Fund

Publication Date

July 2015

Grant Amount

$220,000

Grant Date:

October 2012 – December 2013

In 2012, the New York State Medicaid Redesign Team recommended that all children and adolescents in foster care should be enrolled in Medicaid managed care to help streamline services and improve efficiencies of care for this extremely vulnerable population.

The transition to managed care, however, would require an overhaul of the current service delivery system for New York’s 22,000 foster care children and youth. NYHealth awarded a grant to the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies (COFCCA) to design a financially viable model of managed care that addresses the range of physical and behavioral health needs of foster care children.

Outcomes and Lessons Learned

  • Created a detailed assessment of medical service use and Medicaid expenditures from data on a cohort of 73,000 children who had been in foster care over a nine year period;
  • Developed a framework around service delivery and reimbursement for a managed care model, which was presented to State officials, City officials, and health plan associations; and
  • Released a comprehensive report, “Raising the Bar for Health and Mental Health Services for Children in Foster Care: Developing a Model of Managed Care,” that described the foster care population and made recommendations for facilitating its transition to managed care, including providing trauma-informed care, prioritizing a health home model, and setting adequate capitation rates to allow for a high level of care coordination.