Children with Severe Chronic Conditions on Medicaid

Many children with special health care needs depend on the health and supportive services provided by Medicaid. It is important that policymakers have a sound understanding of these children's patterns of health care use, especially given the shift to managed care. Previous studies of children on Medicaid with severe disability and/or chronic illness have focused on "SSI-related" children, or children with extremely high health care costs. This study provides further analysis of Medicaid expenditures for SSI children, and adds to the literature by applying diagnostic and utilization-based criteria to claims data to identify children with severe chronic illness. This methodology enables analysis of the service use patterns and expenditures for children with severe chronic conditions who are receiving Medicaid, but are not enrolled in SSI. (40 PDF pages)