Kane County: Health department change working

The first large segment of data tracking the transition of family case management services from the Kane County Public Health Department and into the private sector indicates a mostly successful switch.

The county board gutted the health department last fall. Full transition of family case management didn't occur until November. Family case management provides maternal child health services and entry to the Medicaid system for mothers in need. Local, federally-qualified private care outlets took over those services for the county when county officials deemed state payments for the services too erratic to sustain the county's management of the program.

“What I can report to you again is all the (private providers) are above caseload for their case management,” said Paul Kuehnert, executive director of the county's health department. “There has been no loss of access to services as far as we can tell.”

The numbers do show an unusual lag between mothers becoming involved in prenatal care through the private providers and actual entry into family case management and the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program that provides nutritious foods to low-income women and young children.

Kuehnert said he's investigated the lag. It can be attributed to recent delays in receiving case finding lists from the state of new Medicaid recipients who are known to be pregnant. Such mothers are exactly the clientele the family case management program was created for. The delay in getting the lists of new clients has created a lag for case managers who actually seek out these mothers and enroll them into the program, Kuehnert said. That lag is being addresses, he added.

Data collected shows some key demographic information and challenges for the private providers and the county's health department in meeting regional wellness goals.

The numbers show the vast majority of mothers in prenatal programs considered vital to the health of their babies are at least 20 years old. About 12 percent of the mothers are aged 15 to 19. Less than 1 percent of the moms are 14 or younger. Most mothers enrolled are having their first or second baby. However, there remains a clear disconnect for all those mothers when it comes to the importance of breast-feeding their babies in early months of their lives, according to the health department. The county wants to see at least half of the mothers they come into contact with breast-feeding for the first six months of their child's life. Only about 28 percent of mothers are doing so.