New Passport Health Plan program will provide Intensive Care Management services to Children in Foster Care

Passport Health Plan is implementing a pilot program to provide Intensive Care Management services to children in foster care, utilizing “wraparound services” that are tailored to each child with a goal of improving long-term outcomes. Passport has worked with the Commonwealth and the network of healthcare providers to help bring Kentucky’s foster children back to Kentucky. This program is the next step in helping our foster children with behavioral health needs remain in their Kentucky homes.

Children in foster care will be identified for inclusion in the program by the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services (DCBS), and Passport will partner with two behavioral health agencies – Seven Counties Services and ResCare – to serve as Intensive Care Management Organizations (ICMOs) responsible for providing the wraparound services. To be part of the program, children must be Passport Health Plan members who have experienced two or more foster care placements within the most recent 24 months due to behavioral health needs, and who are currently in or being considered for a group home, a psychiatric hospital, or a 24-hour behavioral health treatment facility. Admission to the pilot program will be limited to members who are in DCBS custody and who reside in Jefferson County. The pilot group will consist of approximately 60 children between the ages of 4 and 17.5 at the time services begin, and the initial pilot period will be one year.

“Through this program, children in foster care – who are already receiving behavioral health services through Passport – will be paired with individualized care teams to connect them with resources and supports in their communities,” said Dr. Stephen Houghland, Passport Health Plan’s Chief Medical Officer. “This could include religious leaders, athletic coaches, teachers, counselors, therapists, doctors, nurses, family members, friends, and anyone else who could help these children successfully maintain their current placement and help build their community of support to achieve an eventual goal of a permanent home.”

According to the National Wraparound Initiative, wraparound signifies “an intensive, holistic method of engaging with individuals with complex needs (most typically children, youth, and their families) so that they can live in their homes and communities.”

Along with DCBS and the two ICMOs, partners in this pilot program include the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (DBHDID); Eastern Kentucky University (EKU); and Spalding University.

DBHDID and EKU are bringing trainers from the National Wraparound Implementation Center to the Commonwealth for training and ongoing coaching about the high fidelity wraparound model.
Spalding University’s School of Professional Psychology will have doctoral Psychology students collecting the data for the pilot program evaluation.
The ICMOs will be responsible for providing, contracting for, or otherwise arranging for the individualized behavioral health services for each member enrolled in the pilot program.