Recorded presentation

Mary Armstrong, PhD, Department of Child and Family Studies, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd, Tampa, FL 33612, (813) 974-4601, armstron@fmhi.usf.edu, Beth Stroul, Management & Training Innovations, 6725 Curran Street, McLean, VA 22101, Sheila Pires, Human Services Collaborative, 1728 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 224, Washington, DC 20007, Virginia Wood, BA, Family Support Systems, Inc., 20487 N. 94th Avenue, Peoria, AZ 85382, and Jan McCarthy, MSW, National Technical Assitance Center for Children's Mental Health, Georgetown University, 3307 M Street, N.W., Washington, DC 2007.

Since 1995 the Health Care Reform Tracking Project has evaluated the impact of public sector managed care reforms on children with emotional problems and their families. The project uses a mixed method approach including periodic surveys of all states to document changes and trends in managed care, in-depth case studies of states with experience with Medicaid managed care, and the identification and dissemination of promising approaches and features of managed care designs. In January 2004 the Tracking Project published the findings of the 2003 State Survey. In September 2003 the Tracking Project convened a national consensus conference of managed care experts, including researchers, advocates, family members, and policymakers. The purpose of the conference was to identify key findings across research projects about providing managed behavioral health care services to children and adolescents and their families; and, based on these findings, to develop a set of agreed-upon recommendations for policy, practice, and research related to publicly financed managed care for children and adolescents with behavioral health disorders and their families. This presentation will summarize 2003 State Survey findings and trends in a number of critical domains, including populations covered by managed care, service coverage and capacity, special provisions for youth with complex needs, financing and risk arrangements, access, family involvement, clinical decision making, cultural competence, and accountability. In addition, the presentation will review the policy, practice, and research recommendations from the 2003 Consensus Conference.

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