Millions of Medicaid kids don't get medical exams

Source: Associated Press

Almost three-quarters of children on Medicaid in nine states are not getting all of their legally required medical, vision and hearing examinations, including immunizations, according to a new government study.

The study, conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general, estimated that 2.7 million of the 3.8 million children in those states, or 76 percent, did not receive one or more of the medical, vision or hearing screenings during 2007, the year studied. The studied states are Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Doctors say regular checkups are especially important for low-income children who are at higher risk for chronic problems including obesity, depression and poor cognitive development. Missing checkups means problems aren't spotted early and increases the chance they will develop into something more significant, said Dr. Louis St. Petery, a Florida pediatric cardiologist.

"Checkups aren't just made up," said St. Petery, who is part of a class-action lawsuit alleging Florida is violating federal Medicaid requirements by providing inadequate medical care for children. "They are essential."

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_15150441

timme since I was in school, butthey sed to do a hearing & vision test every 2 years in school, and the mandatory vaccines were all given there too. Each one required a parental approval, but I don't recall anyone who ever said no.

I think in kindergarten or first grade.


That vision screening didn't do me any good back in the early 1960s.

The nurse would sit at the front of the room with her light box with the Es pointing in different directions. I was at the back, and every time she pointed at a letter I said, "I can't see that. I can't see that. I can't see that."

Well, nobody noticed and nobody told Mom. Mom wondered why I had my nose in a book all the time, and it was because I couldn't see it!

In the second grade she took me to the eye doctor and found out I needed glasses, probably before I started school. She said she felt really stupid. Mom and Dad had perfect eyesight and only wore reading glasses. I was the only one in the family who needed to wear them to navigate.

Even now, my focusing distance is 6 inches in my good eye and about four inches in my bad eye. And I'm in bifocals, having seen forty a long time ago.

Contacts are a wonderful invention because I can get corrected to 20/15 and there is no way to do that in glasses.

There was a FARK story not too long ago about a school where a bunch of them were failing their tests. This might have been Detroit. I don't remember. Anyway, they all got their eyes tested and ten percent of them needed glasses. And their test scores went up.

From my childhood experience, this does not surprise me.

:toast:

:yourock:

(I clicked on your profile because I was intrigued by your user name, and interested by your post. :) )