Michigan’s ABCD Screening Academy project collaborated with the AAP’s “Setting the Stage” initiative to provide primary care offices with training and tools to implement and sustain standardized developmental screening.

Specifically, the ABCD Screening Academy project in Michigan improved developmental screening by:

• Improving state policy to better support developmental screening by incorporating the 2007 Bright Futures periodicity schedule and by clarifying the Medicaid billing process for developmental screening (i.e. coding and reimbursement) for all Medicaid providers who care for children.
• Improving provider practice around the use of standardized developmental screening tools by disseminating pediatric preventive care guidelines, clarifying and revising policy, and promoting consistency in payment, billing and coding practice. The project team also convened an ABCD partners meeting to highlight collaborative efforts by a pediatric office and Early On/Part C Coordinator that led to successful implementation of developmental screenings, and provided the opportunity for county specific community partners (Providers, Early On, Community Mental Health, and Local Health Department personnel) to discuss the implementation of developmental screening initiatives.
• Sustaining and spreading the use of standardized screening tools as part of well child care from a ‘best practice’ to a ‘standard of practice’ through developing a strategic spread model to actively engage stakeholders on an organizational, regional, and statewide basis and to employ this spread model in future collaborative quality improvement efforts addressing child health, regardless of topic.