Tag Archive for: spoc

Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) can require significant care coordination across a continuum of health and social services. Improved care coordination for CYSHCN can lead to better outcomes for CYSHCN, as well as cost savings for states. To achieve those goals, state Medicaid agencies and Title V CYSHCN programs are increasingly using individual, comprehensive plans of care, called shared plans of care (SPoCs), to strengthen care coordination for CYSHCN.
States play a significant role in coordinating care for CYSHCN and in implementing SPoCs. Nationally, state Medicaid agencies and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health insurance to 48 percent of all CYSHCN, and their Title V programs are an essential resource for care coordination for CYSHCN and can play a central role in supporting and implementing SPoCs.
Health care delivery transformation and other federal and state reforms present key opportunities for states to promote the use of SPoCs. For example, states are now integrating SPoCs into patient-centered medical home (PCMH) initiatives, health home models, Medicaid managed care arrangements, and state accountable care organizations. To implement SPoCs, states are:

• Creating a standardized SPoC document for use or adaptation by Title V CYSHCN program staff, health care providers, health plans, and others that serve CYSHCN;
• Contractually requiring Medicaid managed care organizations to use SPoCs as part of their care coordination services; and
• Working within programs or with outside entities to modify existing care planning processes to accommodate SPoCs and ensure they meet shared care planning standards.

In a new issue brief, State Strategies for Using Shared Plans of Care to Improve Care Coordination for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs, the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) outlines state strategies to effectively launch and implement SPoC. The report also features four state case studies that explore how Iowa, Oregon, Utah, and West Virginia are implementing and advancing their SPoC initiatives. Highlights include:

• Iowa’s Title V CYSHCN program developed an electronic SPoC using ACT.md, a web-based platform that serves as the central hub for SPoCs. Iowa uses the SPoCs to support care coordination for a subset CYSHCN who receive services through the state’s Pediatric Integrated Health Home Program or Child Health Specialty Clinics (the state’s community-based public health agencies).
• Oregon is implementing SPoCs for a select group of CYSHCN through its local public health agencies (LPHAs), which it contracts with to provide care coordination services. SPoCs are developed during meetings with all of the child’s providers, which helps ensure that everyone involved in the child’s care receives the same information. To enable LPHAs to better provide cross-sector care coordination and support integration of care in the community, Oregon maintains a resource-rich SPoC website that includes its SPoC Implementation Guide.
• Utah’s SPoC initiative targets CYSHCN living in rural areas who receive direct clinical services from the state’s Title V CYSHCN program, with the Title V care coordinators leading the development and oversight of SPoCs. SPoCs are housed in the state’s electronic medical record system (Cadurx). Families can access their children’s SPoCs through a patient portal and they also receive a printed copy. Training, tools, and information on care coordination and SPoCs are available to providers and care coordinators through the Utah Children’s Care Coordination Network.
• West Virginia’s Title V program developed its SPoC initiative when it redesigned its care coordination program for CYSHCN. The care coordinators within the state’s Title V CYSHCN program lead the development of SPoCs and collaborate with the Medicaid managed care organizations’ (MCOs) medical case managers, foster care services agencies, and primary care physicians to provide care coordination. The strong partnership between the state Medicaid agency and state Title V program helped the Title V program established memos of understanding (MOUs) with the four state Medicaid MCOs. Through the MOU, MCOs and the Title V program are required to coordinate the care planning process for CYSHCN, including the use of SPoCs.