Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) currently collaborates with Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in the provision of multiple services for Title V, CYSHCN Medicaid recipients. Under this agreement, CYSHCN contracts with DHHS to provide the following services:

• The Hearing Program helps assure optimal health and functioning devices for children, youth, and young adults with diagnosed hearing loss. This program coordinates supplies for hearing aids, cochlear implants, and bone anchored hearing aids (BAHA) to facilitate the healthy growth and development of language and speech among our participants. 
• The CYSHCN Hemophilia Program procures blood products and related supplies for home infusion for select Medicaid recipients with hemophilia or other blood coagulation disorders.

There is a strong partnership with DHHS with open and frequent communication regarding these services. CYSHCN has designated liaisons that staff communicate with regarding questions, reimbursement issues, and eligibility or benefits inquiries. CYSHCN provides reports and data for services provided to Medicaid recipients and participates in ongoing quality improvement. CYSHCN is an integral part of the above-mentioned activities and look forward to the continued alliance with DHHS.

The Division of Children’s Health and Perinatal Services (CHPS) houses several programs that demonstrate a strong collaboration with our Medicaid partner agency, DHHS, with core activities that successfully serve the needs of women and children. In many of these, Medicaid and Title V Block Grant funds are leveraged to assure continuity of services following initial identification of at-risk or less-than-optimal states of health.  

• Through an interagency agreement, SC Medicaid pays a set rate for an environmental lead risk assessment for children with elevated blood lead levels meeting DHEC’s referral criteria. Lead program outreach done by public health nurses when face-to-face with the child is funded by Medicaid under Nursing Services for Children under 21. The work of the assessment team is also partially funded by CDC grant and Title V Block Grant dollars.
• Well over half of the mother-infant dyads referred for a Postpartum Newborn Home Visit are families enrolled in Medicaid at the time of delivery. Title V monies allow our nurses to serve other high-risk/high-priority families where there is not a payment source.
• The Newborn Metabolic Screening program uses Medicaid funds to help pay for infant formulas that are delivered via feeding tubes. Medicaid funds help cover the costs of laboratory testing for the 56 disorders currently screened for in the first days of life. These funds assist families in paying for the costs of medications needed to manage several of the disorders identified through screening (e.g., biotinidase deficiency, cystic fibrosis, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia.) Title V dollars and WIC program funds assist in provision of metabolic formulas for children.
• School health services are funded via a variety of braided funding streams, including direct Medicaid payment for nursing services for children under 21.
• The Division’s First Sound Program (early hearing assessment and follow-up) works closely with the CYSHCN program to assure access to screening and diagnostic audiologic examinations, therapies, and devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.
• Division staff develop directories of services, publish guides to healthy pregnancies, and provide direct education through conferences, health fairs and community events, assuring that the highly-Medicaid covered perinatal population and their children are aware of vital services.
• Through the broad partnerships created and sustained in our Perinatal Regionalization and Child Well-Being Coalitions, the Division can assess and address systemic issues that affect the health and wellness of SC’s maternal and child populations, especially in the perinatal and early infancy periods. Since nearly 60% of SC’s annual deliveries are to Medicaid-enrolled mothers, the Title V supported work of these programs helps assure that large numbers of women and children are provided needed services.

The CHPS Division has on numerous occasions, worked closely with our Medicaid partners on processes to improve current services and to fund expansion of services that will help improve health outcomes. Our on-going work during the COVID-19 pandemic to assure funding for and availability of telehealth services was facilitated by our longstanding partnerships and share institutional memory. We have in place good mechanisms for “continuous liaisons between parties” and for jointly evaluating the success of our joint initiatives.