This report from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law explores Medicaid coverage options for children with serious emotional disturbance. The report intends to encourage states to adopt specific mechanisms to allow these children to be covered.

From the report:

Children with mental health needs are much in the news these days. It is more vital than ever that public systems be able to provide the services these children need to live safely and grow up in families. The federal-state Medicaid program should be a principal avenue of access to the kinds of community mental health services these children require, yet, as a result of deficient state policies, it remains underused for their benefit.

It is alarming that, 10 years after the passage of federal legislation requiring Medicaid-eligible children to have access to all medically necessary services to treat any physical and mental conditions, many states have less-than-adequate definitions of covered services. Although, under Medicaid law, children are eligible for all appropriate care, the lack of specificity in many state rules makes it very hard for families to access many critical services, or even to know that their child has such coverage.

Full Report: Making Sense of Medicaid for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbance (PDF | 1.14 MB)

Bazelon. (2010). Making sense of Medicaid for children with serious emotional disturbance.