Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services, including early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment (EPSDT) for any individual under 21 years of age who is covered under Medi-Cal consistent with the requirements under federal law. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions.

Existing federal law provides that EPSDT services include periodic screening services, vision services, dental services, hearing services, and other necessary services to correct or ameliorate defects and physical and mental illnesses and conditions discovered by the screening services, whether or not the services are covered under the state plan. In addition to the required periodic screening services, existing federal law provides that Medicaid-eligible children are entitled to interperiodic screenings in order to identify a suspected illness or condition not present or discovered during the periodic examination.

This bill would require the department, in consultation with the State Department of Social Services and others, to convene, by May 1, 2018, an advisory working group to update, amend, or develop, if appropriate, tools and protocols for screening children for trauma as defined, within the EPSDT benefit, as specified. The bill would require this group to report its findings and recommendations, as well as any appropriations necessary to implement those recommendations, to the department and to the Legislature’s budget subcommittees on health and human services no later than May 1, 2019, and would provide that this group would be disbanded on December 31, 2019. The bill would also require, on or before May 1, 2019, the department to identify an existing advisory working group to periodically review and consider the protocols for the screening of trauma in children at least once every 5 years, or upon the request of the department. The bill would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions by means of all-county letters, plan letters, or plan or provider bulletins, as specified.