Improving EPSDT Periodicity Schedules to Promote Healthy Development

Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit is comprehensively designed to promote children’s healthy development. EPSDT includes outreach, comprehensive well-child visits (referred to as EPSDT screens), treatment and case management. In recent years states have recognized that it is important to identify and treat developmental delays early in a child’s life. EPSDT screens are designed to identify any physical, developmental, oral or mental health condition a child may have, as well as provide parents (and adolescents) with information to help them promote the child’s optimal development. This State Health Policy Briefing summarizes findings from a review of state websites and an informal survey of state EPSDT Coordinators designed to identify the extent to which states were revising EPSDT schedules to adopt improved standards of care.