Exit Rates and Exit Types for Foster Care Children in a Managed Care Delivery System

1. Exit Rates and Exit Types for Foster Care Children in a Managed Care Delivery System Ge Hong, MPS Marvin Mandell, Ph.D. Department of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Donna Harrington, Ph.D. Denise Warren, M.S.W. University of Maryland School of Social Work

2. Introduction Increase in the number of children in foster care Escalating costs of foster care Benefits of managed care: Containing costs Shortening length of stay Improving services

3. Managed Care in Child Welfare 29 of 49 states and Washington D.C. reported having at least one managed care initiative (McCullough & Schmitt, 2000) Little evidence regarding the effectiveness of managed care on child outcomes exists Kansas Illinois

4. IV-E Waiver Demonstrations Under Title IV-E waivers, 6 states are examining the effectiveness of a managed care approach CO, CT, MD, MI, TX, WA Outcome findings available: Connecticut Michigan

5. Maryland Child Welfare Managed Care Demonstration Project Three year project: Jan. 2000 – Dec. 2002 Contracted with a non-profit lead agency and a for-profit subcontractor Project components: Outcome study Cost-effectiveness study Process study

6. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to determine: whether a managed care delivery system expedites children’s exit from care whether the exit types of children in the project differ by treatment status

7. Method True experiment with random assignment 500 children in the experimental group receiving services from the managed care organization 250 children in the control group receiving standard services from the local department of social services

8. Sample