A Program for Children with Special Needs
CHKD was selected to establish the Care Connection for Children for Hampton Roads, one of six statewide, and to coordinate the health care and community support services for the approximately 52,000 children with special healthcare needs in the Chesapeake, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Peninsula, Western Tidewater and Eastern Shore public health districts.
The program pulls together case managers, medical personnel, educators and family members to determine how children with special health care needs - those with chronic physical disorders that are expected to last for at least 12 months - can reach their maximum potential.
The program provides a pool of funds for uninsured and underinsured children with special healthcare needs. Among the children served are those with long-term hearing, craniofacial, urologic, rheumatologic, orthopedic and neurologic disorders and conditions such as diabetes, cystic fibrosis and spina bifida.
While each Care Connection for Children program is funded by the Virginia Department of Health, each is locally managed, offering an efficient community-based approach to care. This allows each regional program to make the most of the area's unique resources and apply those to the specific needs of the children they serve.
Services Available
Regional Centers of Excellence, known as the Care Connection for Children, house a care coordination team. This team facilitates medical and support services for children with special healthcare needs.
Our Care Connection for Children center strives to provide services that are family-centered, culturally sensitive, community-based, coordinated, collaborative and outcome-oriented.
In general, children and families can expect these services:
- Access to medical specialty care.
- Ongoing help in coordinating specialty care and accessing services.
- Assistance with obtaining health insurance.
- Help in understanding and using health insurance benefits.
- Information about and referral to community resources.
- Help communicating with schools, payers, providers and community services.
- Help determining eligibility for access to a "pool of funds" to pay for those services, such as medical equipment, specialty physician visits and medications not covered by a child's insurance.
Eligibility Requirements
Care Connection for Children serves those children with physical disorders that are expected to last for at least 12 months and result in one of the following:
- A need for medical or related services beyond those normally expected for the child's age, or a need for ongoing treatments, interventions or accommodations at home or school.
- A limitation in functions, activities or social roles when compared with peers.
- A dependence on medications, special diets, medical technologies, assistive devices or personal assistance.
All of Virginia's children with special needs under 21 are eligible for care coordination services from Care Connection for Children regional programs.
How To Access Services
Parents or any of the child's health care providers can call (757) 668-7132 or (800)-864-8903 or complete the Care Connection for Children referral form.
Financial Assistance
Financial assistance may be available to eligible families whose income is at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. These children may be eligible to receive help in paying for items such as medical equipment and medications.
Family Support
The Care Connection for Children program has developed a family-to-family support system that enables family members and their children to interact with each other and learn how they handle common problems. This interaction happens either in group meetings or through personal contact.