Thursday, January 12, 2023
The Care for Kids grant program team at Iowa’s Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD, Iowa’s UCEDD) is leading a Shared Language Initiative to support the work of the state’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) interagency stakeholder workgroup. The Shared Language Initiative is intended to develop a list of common terms and concepts to be used by our stakeholder workgroup and agencies to make it easier for patients, families, and providers to better understand EPSDT benefits and how they differ from other insurance benefits like CHIP. The Initiative will also support statewide efforts to promote EPSDT and its services, and meet EPSDT goals.
Each year, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services contracts with CDD to support Iowa’s health care providers who care for kids. The CDD team publishes the Care for Kids newsletter three times a year, maintains the Iowa EPSDT website, updates the Iowa EPSDT Periodicity Schedule, and provides training and practice consultation. The CDD team also convenes quarterly meetings of the stakeholder workgroup to ensure families of children and youth in Iowa, who are eligible for EPSDT benefits, receive the information and care their kids need to maintain healthy lives.
Nadin Mustafa, LMSW, UCEDD Program Coordinator for the EPSDT team and a clinical social worker at CDD, is leading the Shared Language Initiative. She called on members of the Initiative workgroup to share descriptions of their agency’s EPSDT role.
“First we need to understand clearly what each of us do to deliver EPSDT benefits to Iowa’s kids, so that we can make it clear to others,” Mustafa said. “We also want to explore what other states are doing to build and promote EPSDT, so that we can learn from them, and eventually, share back.”
As CDD’s team moves forward with the Shared Language Initiative, they plan to reach out to the AUCD network for information. If you have information to share, or have questions, get in touch with Meredith Field at [email protected].
Learn more about Iowa’s EPSDT Care for Kids at https://www.iowaepsdt.org/.