Child Health Program
NICAO's Child Health program provides services for children and youth ages 0 to 22 years. Staff help families to access a variety of programs, as well as the following screening services for their children:
- history
- physical examinations
- vision and hearing screening
- dental education and referral
- health education
- immunizations
- developmental assessment
- nutrition and psychosocial screening
- laboratory tests including blood lead testing
EPSDT
The Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) Program is a required component of Medicaid and is designed to improve the health of low-income children. EPSDT staff works with public health providers, families, managed care organizations , pediatricians, dentists, and other health providers to coordinate care. Through the EPSDT program, NICAO makes attempts to contact all the newly enrolled children (age 0-21) in the Medicaid or Title 19 program each month. Their goal is to inform families of their rights as a Medicaid participants, as well as the type of care available to them. In doing so, NICAO is able to identify individuals in need of referrals for medical and dental care and initiate those referrals, arrange required transportation or translator services and identify additional barriers and arrange other related referrals for the individual or family (food pantry, domestic violence shelter, parenting classes, etc).
1st Five
1st FiveNICAO’s 1st Five Coordinator supports area health providers in the earlier detection of social-emotional and developmental delays and family risk-related factors (in children birth to 5) and coordinates referrals, interventions and follow-up for families. Referrals are accepted from area physicians.
For more information, please contact this program coordinator at 641-530-0809.
hawk-i
Iowa offers hawk-i health care coverage for uninsured children of working families. No family pays more than $40 a month. For more information or to apply, go to:
What’s happening to hawk-i in 2016?
- You can still get free or low-cost healthcare coverage for kids and teens
- Income guidelines will be changing, which means families with higher income may qualify!
- An easier application process - hawk-i will be part of the Health Insurance Marketplace, meaning an easier application and automatic income verification.
- Children on hawk-i will be covered by either Wellmark or UnitedHealthcare, and you still get to choose which plan your child is on.
- Families already on hawk-i will not have any changes until their renewal time, and they will still qualify for either hawk-i or Medicaid at that time.
- Questions? You can still call hawk-i customer support toll-free at 1-800-257-8563.
Child Health Nurse Consultant Services
Child Care Nurse Consultants (CCNCs) who are registered nurses experienced in child health, child care, and child safety. Child Care Nurse Consultants work with child care and early education businesses. Businesses may call or send questions to a child care nurse consultant about health and safety policies, health programs, health of personnel, and specific child health or safety issues.
Please contact (800) 657-5856 for more information.