Massachusetts Initiative to Address
Adequate Health Care Financing for
Children with Special Health Care Needs

Despite recent success in extending some form of insurance coverage to nearly all children in Massachusetts, there is significant evidence that large numbers of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) experience critical gaps between their medical and health care needs and available health care financing.

Through this initiative, New England SERVE is designing – and securing broad endorsement for – a set of strategies that can improve the health care financing system for all CSHCN in the Commonwealth.

Specific activities are focused on: developing a model for delivering and financing enhanced care coordination, increasing understanding of medical coverage decision-making for both families and providers, and building supports for family participation in health care policy and financing.

These strategies will reduce barriers to adequate financing by:

• blending funding across multiple payers to support care coordination
• facilitating inter-agency and public-private sector collaboration
• supporting the active participation of families in policy partnerships, and
• increasing public understanding of how payers make different types of coverage and benefits decisions.

Contact us for further information about this initiative.