Funding realities: child abuse diagnostic evaluations in the health care setting

This study examines staffing, funding sources, reimbursement, and financing of medically-oriented child protection teams.

A 16-item questionnaire on the composition, size, and services of the team, program costs, revenue sources, reimbursement rates, and perceptions of funding stability was mailed to a sample of 118 medically-oriented child protection teams.

After excluding 10 programs, an overall response rate of 68% was obtained. Teams varied in configuration, services, charges, and funding. Over 50% identified funding as being important, yet, demonstrated varying levels of awareness of budget and reimbursement issues. Many generally relied on patient care reimbursement from health care and government payers. Some programs seemed to be doing well financially while others were struggling. Approximately one-third of the respondents indicated that funding was unstable.

Many programs are innovatively knitting together patch-works of funding and support to serve children and families in need. Team leaders should increase their knowledge of fiscal issues in order to be effective advocates at the institutional level for continued team support. A potential way of accomplishing this would be to utilize the existing structure of a national professional association and its national meeting to provide a forum for relatively successful programs to showcase their "ideal models" of team financing.