Children’s Preventive Services
Medi-Cal for Kids & Teens provides free services to keep California children and youth healthy. These include age-appropriate preventive care services recommended by pediatricians (like check-ups, shots, and health screenings) . Unfortunately though, millions of children in Medi-Cal don’t get the preventive care they’re entitled to due to limited access and poor oversight by the Department of Health Care Services.
Children Now is leading advocacy to change this by holding the state and health plans accountable for improving rates of children’s preventive services. Through our collaborative efforts the rate of infants receiving check-ups increased by 31% from 2020 to 2022. There is still significant work needed to be done however, including helping the state achieve its goal of reducing racial and ethnic disparities in well-child visits and immunizations.
Fast Facts about Medi-Cal Children’s Preventive Services:
- California ranks 49th in children without medical and dental preventive visits in the past year.
- Only half of kids with Medi-Cal are getting annual check-ups.
- Across all age groups, Black, American Indian/ Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander children face the greatest barriers to accessing preventive care visits.
- Developmental screening rates are rising, but American Indian/Alaska Native & Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander children are least likely to be screened for delays by providers.
- Overall, immunization rates are too low and have fallen since 2019; but children and youth in rural areas of California are even less likely to get their full course of immunizations.
- Just one in three Medi-Cal health plans is currently meeting the minimum state standards set for children’s preventive care measures.
Now available!
Chartbook: Preventive Services for Kids in Medi-Cal
Children Now reviewed eight indicators from the Preventive Services Reports covering the 2019–2022 periods of care for California children and youth in Medicaid (Medi-Cal).
In this chartbook, we have summarized our topline statewide findings and provided data visualizations in four key areas of children’s preventive services: wellchild visits; immunizations; screenings; and vision and oral health care.