How do we handle expenses associated with children’s complex medical care?
| by jglear |
06/08/2011 1:15 PM |
Anyone who has spent time thinking about funding school health services will reach several conclusions:
1.
The current system is jerry-rigged, frequently on the brink of
collapse. Each state, each community and each school has its own unique
approach that knits together too few resources to cover too many
responsibilities.
2. The
unpredictability of these arrangements hurts all children but is
particularly dangerous to the most vulnerable – the children with
special health care needs.
3.
Linking the knowledge and skills of the health care system with the
school-located professionals who work daily to support seriously ill
children attending class is a good place to start. And that partnership
needs to be sustained by a carefully articulated, transparent funding
structure.
Commenting in last month’s Pediatrics
on the rapid increase of children with complex chronic conditions and
children who require 1:1 care, Martha Dewey Bergren, Director of
Research at the National Association of School Nurses, noted that the
current system of shuffling costs between the health and education systems using a tag-you’re-it approach is not addressing the challenge “in a meaningful way".
How
is your school system and health system handling expenses associated
with children’s complex medical care? Are there model programs to study?
To read comments or leave a comment, click the Comments button below.