Medi-Cal Excellence in Early Childhood Outcomes Collaborative Learning Community Online Hub
The Medi-Cal Excellence in Early Childhood Outcomes Collaborative (MEECOC) Learning Community was launched in February 2022 to leverage the local experience throughout the state and share resources towards quality improvement for infant well-child visits in Medi-Cal. In Federal Fiscal Year 2020, California was in the lowest quartile of all states based on the “Percentage of Children Receiving Six or More Well-Child Visits in the First 15 Months of Life”.
The MEECOC Learning Community was born from the national Infant Well-Child Visit Learning Collaborative at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), of which California is one of eight state affinity groups participating. The core team representing California is led by the Department of Health Care Services, joined by three Medi-Cal health plan partners (Health Net, Health Plan of San Joaquin, and Partnership Health Plan), and supported by Children Now. This participation allows the group access to quality improvement technical assistance support as they identify and implement strategies to improve well-child visits for infants. The working aim is to:
“Increase the percent of children in intervention counties who complete two or more well-child visits by 6 months of age by 10 percentage points from the 2021 baseline, and decrease rate disparities for at least one racial/ethnic group by 10 percent from the 2021 baseline.”
Building on the CMS technical assistance and focused efforts of DHCS, the MEECOC Learning Community seeks to engage a broader set of stakeholders committed to infant well-visit improvement to share learnings, make connections, and align strengths. Participants in the MEECOC Learning Community include a variety of health plans, providers, and other stakeholders and advocates across the state, as listed in the table below.
State Agencies
Managed Care Plans
Health Care Providers
Other Stakeholders & Advocates
- California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)
- California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
- California Department of Social Services (CDSS)
- Aetna Better Health of California
- Anthem, Inc.
- Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan
- CalOptima Health
- Central California Alliance for Health
- Community Health Group
- Contra Costa Health Plan
- Gold Coast Health Plan
- Health Net
- Health Plan of San Joaquin
- Inland Empire Health Plan
- Kaiser Permanente
- Kern Health Systems
- L. A. Care
- Molina Healthcare
- Partnership HealthPlan of California
- San Francisco Health Plan
- Santa Clara Family Health Plan
- UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California
- Alameda Health System
- American Academy of Pediatrics – California
- California Health Care Safety Net Institute
- California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative
- CenCal Health
- Chapa-De Indian Health
- Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
- Contra Costa Health Services
- County Health Executives Association of California
- County of Santa Clara Health System
- County of Santa Cruz Public Health
- Golden Valley Health Centers
- Kaweah Health Medical Center
- Kern Medical
- Loma Linda University Health
- Monterey County Health Department Clinics
- Natividad Medical Center
- Northern Inyo Healthcare District
- Oak Valley Hospital District
- Pediatrics VMC Bascom
- Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego
- Redwood Community Health Coalition
- Remi Vista
- Riverside University Health System – Medical Center
- Sacramento County Health Center
- Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System
- San Joaquin County Clinics
- San Joaquin General Hospital
- San Mateo Medical Center
- San Mateo County Health
- Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
- Stanford School of Medicine
- Stanislaus County Health Services Agency
- Tahoe Forest Health System
- UC Davis Health
- UC Davis Medical Center
- UC Irvine
- Children Now
- BluePath Health
- California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
- California WIC Association
- Exceptional Parents Unlimited
- First 5 Center for Children’s Policy
- First 5 Alameda County
- First 5 Butte County
- First 5 Contra Costa County
- First 5 El Dorado County
- First 5 Fresno County
- First 5 Humboldt County
- First 5 Lake County
- First 5 Los Angeles County
- First 5 Marin County
- First 5 Mendocino County
- First 5 Merced County
- First 5 Modoc County
- First 5 Placer County
- First 5 Riverside County
- First 5 Sacramento County
- First 5 San Bernardino County
- First 5 San Joaquin County
- First 5 Santa Cruz County
- First 5 Shasta County
- First 5 Solano County
- First 5 Sonoma County
- First 5 Ventura County
- First 5 Yolo County
- Futures Without Violence
- Integrated Healthcare Association
- Kim Lewis Advocacy
- KP Public Affairs
- Manatt Health
- Maternal and Child Health Access
- Mazars
- MOMS Orange County
- Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County
- National Service Office for Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First
- Optimal Solutions Consulting
- Packard Foundation
- Reach Out and Read Bay Area
- Sacramento County
- Santa Cruz County
- Sarlo Family Foundation
- Stanford University
- Stupski Foundation
- Sutter County Children & Families Commission
- The Children’s Partnership
- Transform Health
- UCAAN ACES Aware Network
- ZERO TO THREE and HealthySteps
Stakeholders can sign up to join the state Learning Community listserv and get information to participate in the bi-monthly meetings via the link below. Learning Community participants will be able to learn from and network with other Learning Community members to help facilitate local improvement in infant well-care.
Learning Community participants will be able to learn from and network with other Learning Community members to help facilitate local improvement in infant well-care. During 2022, the Learning Community will convene every other month, according to the tentative schedule below. Materials will be posted shortly after each meeting.
Meeting Date
Materials
Wednesday, March 8, 2023 from 3:30-4:30 pm
Wednesday, May 10, 2023 from 3:30-4:30 pm
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 from 3:30-4:30 pm
- Presentation
- Equity and Practice Transformation Payments
- Complete this survey by August 4th to share your experiences with member incentive and/or data sharing strategies to increase infant well child visits
Wednesday, September 13, 2023 from 3:30-4:30 pm
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 from 3:30-4:30 pm
2022 Meetings
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 from 4-4:50 pm
Wednesday, October 12, 2022 from 4-4:50 pm
- Recording [Passcode: MEECOC1012!]
- Presentation
Wednesday, August 3, 2022 from 4-4:50 pm
- Medi-Cal Early Childhood Data by Managed Care Plan Reporting Unit or by County
- Presentation
Monday, June 6, 2022 from 2-2:50 pm
- Presentation on parent survey results
- Presentation on pediatric prenatal visit
- DHCS data workbook on “Infant Well Child Visits in the First Six Months” updated at least quarterly (under “Monitoring Reports” section)
- Addressing the Root Causes of Barriers to Care: A Toolkit for Health Plans, Providers, and Community Organizations to Survey Parents of Infants and Pediatric Providers
Friday, April 8, 2022 from 3-3:50 pm
Wednesday, February 2, 2022 from 4-4:50 pm
The MEECOC Learning Community supports the state’s goal of fortifying the pediatric and primary care foundation as laid out in Medi-Cal’s Strategy to Support Health and Opportunity for Children and Families. In support of that work, this page is updated regularly and is intended to serve as an online hub and repository for additional resources and data on quality improvement for infant well care. Email requests or suggested resources to post to: [email protected].
- NEW! Engaging Community Members: A Guide to Equitable Compensation [CHCS]
- Improving Infant Well-Care with New Medi-Cal Benefits: A Toolkit on New Medi-Cal Benefits and Implementation Resources for Health Plans, Providers, and Community Organizations Serving Infants [Children Now]
- Addressing the Root Causes of Barriers to Care: A Toolkit for Health Plans, Providers, and Community Organizations to Survey Parents of Infants and Pediatric Providers [Children Now]
- Early Screening, Better Outcomes: Developmental Screening & Referral Toolkits for three different settings: Pediatric Medical Clinics, Family Serving Agencies, and Family Resource Centers [First 5 LA]
- Unlocking the Power of Home-Based Asthma Services: Model Health Benefit Packages describes the scope, staffing, and services associated with home-based asthma services that identify and address environmental asthma triggers in the home environment. The tool includes tiers of services (e.g., from a very basic set of services to more premium sets of services) to provide a range of options for payers at different levels of readiness to provide home-based asthma services and includes recommendations to support action from a range of critical stakeholders. [RAMP and NCHH]
- A Toolkit to Advance Racial Health Equity in Primary Care Improvement is designed to help California primary care stakeholders advance racial health equity in care improvement efforts; and it offers seven concrete opportunities to act and advance health equity along a “road map of improvement.” [ CIN and Health Begins]
- The Quality Improvement Essentials Toolkit includes tools and templates needed to launch a successful quality improvement project and manage performance improvement, including resources on Driver Diagrams [Institute for Healthcare Improvement]
- Medi-Cal for Kids & Teens provides free services to keep children healthy from birth to age 21. These services include check-ups, shots, and health screenings. Also included are treatments for physical, mental, and dental health problems. Medi-Cal for Kids & Teens outreach materials and provider training are now available. [DHCS]
- NEW! Child Health Transformation Resource Center [CHCS] This resource center offers tools for providers, community partners, family and patient leaders, policymakers, and others seeking to transform child health care through three key strategies: 1) Adopting anti-racist practices and policies to advance health equity, 2) Co-creating equitable partnerships between patients, families, and providers, and 3) Identifying family strengths and addressing health-related social needs to promote resilience.
- NEW! 4 Tips for Including & Engaging Family Partners in Your Work [NICHQ]
- NEW! California Child Wellbeing Coalition e-Guide is a digital resource intended to support state and local public health programs, child-serving systems, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations that are interested in collaborating with organized groups at the local-level who are working to achieve child wellbeing through policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change. [California Essentials for Childhood Initiative]
- NEW! Webinars: Trauma and Resilience Informed Systems in Pediatric Primary Care and Centering Anti-Racism in Trauma-Informed Care [Center for Care Innovations]
- Improving Postpartum Care Quality Improvement Resources offers technical assistance (TA) resources to support state Medicaid and CHIP program quality improvement. [CMS]
- How Pediatric Care Providers Are Identifying and Addressing the Impacts of Racism on Children. [The Commonwealth Fund]
- Webinar: CIN Learning Session – The DHCS 2022 Comprehensive Quality Strategy and Bold Goals Initiative. This learning session will benefit anyone who is leading or contributing to efforts to advance health equity, especially in children’s preventive care, maternity care and birth equity, and behavioral health integration. [CIN]
- Accelerating Child Health Care Transformation: Key Opportunities for Improving Pediatric Care [CHCS]
- Webinar: Words Matter: How Language Used in Health Care Settings Can Impact the Quality of Pediatric Care [CHCS]
- Well Visit Planner® (www.wellvisitplanner.org/) is a tool for families and child health professionals committed to the well being of children. The Well Visit Planner (WVP) is an online, mobile optimized tool that engages parents/caregivers as partners to improve well-child care for children up to 6 years of age while ensuring high quality care is provided based on Bright Futures Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children and Adolescents, Fourth Edition. Available in English and Spanish, the WVP helps parents/caregivers to learn about child development, reflect on their strengths, needs and priorities and plan for upcoming well visits for their child/children. Families prioritize what they want to discuss ahead of the visit while learning about and getting resources for the range of potential topics recommended to be addressed in the Bright Futures Guidelines. The personalized Well Visit Guide families receive helps focus time during encounters on the priorities and needs of the family while providing all recommended results of screening to both the family and child health professionals. The WVP is currently available for the First Week, 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18-month and 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 and 6-year well visits. Child health professionals can customize the WVP for use with the children and families they serve and receive Clinical Summaries of the family personalized Well Visit Guide that can be used to prepare for and conduct personalized, connected encounters, document completion of screening and support chart prep and note taking. [CAHMI]
- Quality Improvement Efforts in Infant and Well Child Visit Practices in California, 2018-2021 [DHCS]
- Increasing the Use and Quality of Infant Well-Child Visits: State Webinar Examples Supporting the Driver Diagram [CMS]
- Infant Well Child Affinity Group Driver Diagram and Change Ideas and slide deck [CMS]
- Fostering Social and Emotional Health through Pediatric Primary Care: Common Threads to Transform Everyday Practice and Systems describes the findings from a program analysis on the common practices used by innovative primary care sites implementing a variety of evidence-supported programs [CSSP]
- The ACEs Aware initiative is a first-in-the nation effort to screen patients for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to help improve and save lives. The UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN) develops, promotes, and sustains evidence-informed responses to prevent and help all patients heal from the impacts of trauma and toxic stress.
- Encounter Data Resource Hub has resources to improve encounter data quality [IHA]
- NEW! 2022 Preventive Services Report: Yearly report with data on appropriate utilization of preventive services for children in Medi-Cal Managed Care during 2021 [DHCS]
- NEW! 2021-22 External Quality Review Technical Report: Annual report with aggregated information on the healthcare services provided by Medi-Cal Managed Care health plans, including a children’s health domain of performance measures [DHCS]
- NEW! Lowest Rates of Missed Well-Child/Well-Baby Visits Since April 2020 [RAPID]
- NEW! County rates of Medi-Cal managed care infant well-vists and developmental screenings, by race-ethnicity for MY 2020 [Children Now]
- Medi-Cal Early Childhood Data by County (managed care and fee-for-service) using five early childhood health metrics on well-child visits, childhood immunizations, and developmental screenings. [Children Now]
- Medi-Cal Early Childhood Data by Managed Care Plan Reporting Unit (also organized by County) using five early childhood health metrics on well-child visits, childhood immunizations, and developmental screenings. [Children Now]
- Medi-Cal data on Infant Well Child Visits in the First Six Months: Data workbook to support California’s efforts to improve the rate of Medi-Cal children who had two or more well-child visits with a primary care provider (PCP) by the month they turned 6 months old for these various stratifications including REAL data, Healthy Places Index, population disparity index by county and more data elements. The data workbook will be updated at least quarterly. Visit: https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/dataandstats/Pages/QualityMeasurementAndReporting.aspx (under “Monitoring Reports” section) [DHCS]
- 2021 Preventive Services Report: Yearly report with data on appropriate utilization of preventive services for children in Medi-Cal Managed Care during 2020 [DHCS]
- 50-state table of the Percentage of Children Receiving 6 or More Well-Child Visits in the First 15 Months of Life, FFY 2020 [CMS]
- 30-state table of the Percentage of Children Screened for Risk of Developmental, Behavioral, and Social Delays Using a Standardized Screening Tool Preceding or on their First, Second, or Third Birthday, FFY 2020 [CMS]
- Core Set of Children’s Health Care Quality Measures including the 2021 Annual Report with data from FFY 2020 [CMS]
About Children Now
Children Now is a nonpartisan, multi-issue research, policy development and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting children’s health and education in California. The organization also leads The Children’s Movement of California, a network of more than 4,600 direct service, parent, civil rights, faith-based and community groups dedicated to improving children’s well-being. Learn more about us at www.childrennow.org.