Improving child health care through federal policy: an emerging opportunity

Policymakers considering the 2009 reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) have an opportunity to strengthen federal provisions to promote primary, preventive, and developmental child health care. Several pieces of legislation introduced in 2007 focused on aspects of child health quality, but none placed a specific emphasis on primary care. This issue brief describes three legislative proposals and additional quality provisions related specifically to primary care to consider for incorporation into federal law. These provisions include: 1) establishing a core set of primary child health service outcomes for tracking within Medicaid and SCHIP; 2) creating a structure within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that focuses on strengthening primary, preventive, and developmental child health services; 3) supporting additional research on child health quality and outcomes in primary care; and 4) providing incentives to states to promote evidence-based practices in children's primary health care