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CMS NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: CMS Media Relations CMS
Issues Urgent Call to Action Following Drastic Decline in Care for Children
in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Due to COVID-19 Pandemic Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
released preliminary Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
data revealing that, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public
health emergency (PHE), rates for vaccinations, primary, and preventive
services among children in Medicaid and CHIP have steeply declined. This
decline may have significant impacts on long-term health outcomes for
children, as Medicaid and CHIP cover nearly 40 million children, including
three quarters of children living in poverty and many with special health
care needs that require health services. Further, as many schools remain
closed for in-person instruction, many of the key services children receive
may be delayed, such as child screens and vaccinations prior to the start of
the school year or in-school services such as speech therapy, physical
therapy, and occupational therapy. Because preventative and routine
healthcare is crucial to ensuring that children stay healthy, CMS is
releasing this preliminary data to raise awareness of the vital services
Medicaid and CHIP provides, and calling on stakeholders to take action to make
services more readily available so that we can begin closing the gap in care
for children. A recent CMS data analysis reveals that, compared to the same
time period in 2019, there was a significant decline in critical primary and
time-sensitive preventative services for children between March and May.
Specifically, during this timeframe, there were 22 percent fewer (1.7
million) vaccinations received by beneficiaries up to age 2, 44 percent fewer
(3.2 million) child screening services that assess physical and cognitive
development and can provide early detection of autism and developmental
delay, among other conditions, even after accounting for the increased use of
telehealth, and 69 percent fewer (7.6 million) dental services. Although this
analysis only focuses on data through May 2020 because of the natural lag
between when a service occurs and when CMS receives data, the precipitous
decline in services remains a cause for concern. Not only must state and
local agencies, providers, schools and other key stakeholders work on
returning to prior year treatment levels, they must also strive to treat the
millions of children who have already missed important medical services. This
is essential, as missing these services can have long-term negative impacts on
children’s health outcomes. “As a mother, I have witnessed first-hand how important early
and regular access to screening and medical care is for children’s
development,” says CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “The absence of these vital
health care services may have lifelong consequences for these vulnerable
children, and I call on states, pediatric providers, families, and schools to
ensure children catch-up on overdue medical, behavioral health and dental
appointments as well as childhood immunizations.” Since the national emergency declared in March 2020, CMS has
taken swift action nationwide to aggressively respond to COVID-19 and to work
with our state partners to provide Medicaid and CHIP programs the
flexibilities they need to combat COVID-19 locally. CMS has collaborated
closely with states to quickly provide the flexibilities needed to respond to
the PHE, approving more than 500 state requests for waivers, state plan
amendments, and other flexibilities during the PHE. CMS has also encouraged
states to consider telehealth options as a flexibility in combatting the
COVID-19 pandemic and increasing access to care. Preliminary data shows that
while service delivery via telehealth for children has increased
dramatically, it is still not enough to offset this decline in care for vulnerable
children. Further, although telehealth remains an important part of care
delivery for children, some services, such as vaccinations, cannot be
provided through this vehicle, which contributes to the current gap in their
healthcare. While national data show that vaccination rates are increasing,
the number of vaccines that have been administered so far this year have yet
to make up for the large decline earlier in the year. To ensure that children
catch up on their missed vaccines we need vaccination rates to not only
approach those of 2019, but to be much higher, in order to mitigate the 22
percent dip during the early part of the COVID-19 PHE. This has not begun to
happen, and increases the risk of transmission of vaccine-preventable
illnesses, such as measles, mumps, and Haemophilus influenza. The potential
for increased outbreaks of infectious disease due to decreased vaccinations
is real, and can result in decreased school attendance, decreased learning,
and increased childhood illness in general. Although the start of the school season will be different for
children as many begin their education in a virtual manner, the critical need
for children to receive preventative and routine healthcare persists. It is
important for schools and families to catch up on well-child visits and
ensure that children are up-to-date on their immunizations. The data released today can be found here:https://www.medicaid.gov/resources-for-states/downloads/medicaid-chip-beneficiaries-18-under-COVID-19-snapshot-data.pdf To read the CMS fact sheet click here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-service-use-among-medicaid-chip-beneficiaries-age-18-and-under-during-covid-19 ### Get CMS
news at cms.gov/newsroom, sign up for CMS news via email and follow CMS on Twitter CMS
Administrator @SeemaCMS and @CMSgov. |
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