The Oregon ABCD Screening Academy Project built upon momentum initiated by state efforts such as the Early Childhood System (ECCS) Plan to increase surveillance and standardized developmental and social-emotional screening of children aged 0-5, and to improve referral, diagnostic, and intervention services for children identified with risks and delays. Oregon piloted a surveillance and screening system that ensures follow-up care and identified statewide policies that can increase standardized screening and follow-up.

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

• Improving state policy to better support developmental screening by changing the Oregon Health Plan’s (OHP) list of funded services to make explicit the reimbursement of 96110 at well-child visits for all young children on OHP, developing a measure using claims data that will track how often the 96110 CPT code occurs at a health supervision of infant or child visit, recommending certain standardized developmental screens in the Health Services Commission's Prioritized List of Health Services Practice Guidelines Prevention Tables, and by initiating a pay for performance initiative through Medicaid to increase preventive services in general for clients served by managed care plans.
• Improving provider practice around the use of standardized developmental screening tools by: finalizing a brochure which summarizes the tool selection and periodicity, describes the Medicaid claiming, describes referral procedures, and provides information about communicating with families about their child’s development and referral to Early Intervention (EI); setting up a website dedicated to the ABCD project, its tools, resources and products; developing publications that will include a “branding” of Oregon’s project to acknowledge the work completed that supports future efforts; and piloting the EI referral form with Kaiser in three different county sites that currently use three different forms and processes.
• 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 partnering with the Northwest Early Childhood Institute and Oregon Pediatric Society to adapt the Tennessee “START” program to Oregon’s practice environment and prepare a quality improvement curriculum and module to train practitioners; publicizing reimbursement changes in the Oregon Pediatric Society newsletter and the Family Physician Association newsletter; and making presentations to the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) Quality Improvement Coordinators regarding developmental screening and surveillance, the selection of tools, and the new options for claiming screening.