The New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has released a report finding that certain Medicaid and Child Health Plus (CHP) managed care health plans have lead screening rates for infants and young children below the statewide average.
The Attorney General's Health Care Bureau has begun an inquiry to determine whether plans are complying with state law that mandates universal lead screening and identify steps plans may take to increase their childhood lead screening rates. Senator David A. Paterson, Senator John Sampson, Councilman Bill Perkins, and the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning joined Spitzer in the announcement to create awareness about the importance of childhood lead screening.
Studies have demonstrated that lead poisoning can result in mental and physical impairments, such as cognitive deficits resulting in lower IQ scores, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, growth delays and hearing loss. A disproportionately high number of low-income, African-American children in New York City are victims of such poisoning. If lead poisoning is promptly detected though routine screening in the pre-school years, children can be effectively treated and lead contamination can be removed from their homes before severe damage occurs.
"The tragedy of being permanently damaged by lead poisoning is that every affected child can be treated, if detection occurs early. However, many children continue to fall through the cracks," said Spitzer. "A child's health and development should not be compromised simply because the luck of the draw has landed them in a health plan that does not screen for lead poisoning at an acceptable level."
New York law requires health maintenance organizations, physicians, and other health care providers to ensure that all children are screened, or referred for screening, for lead poisoning at the ages of 1 and 2. The New York State Department of Health (DOH) reports each health plan's compliance annually as a percentage of 2-year-olds that were screened for lead poisoning. Statewide average percentages are also calculated and reported for each year.
Using these DOH figures for the last three years, the report tracked the plans' performance and presented a Compliance Profile. The profile shows the Medicaid and CHP plans that consistently screened enrolled children for lead poisoning by age 2 at a rate significantly below, above or near the average statewide rates for the past three years. Medicaid and CHP plans are the primary focus of the inquiry because they serve low-income children who are at greatest risk of exposure to lead in their homes.
The report concluded that: