Springfield, Illinois – With more than three times the number of providers and more providers across nearly every major category, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) announced that youth in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) will transition to the new YouthCare program on September 1st. The transition follows months of close collaboration with stakeholders and families to bring significant improvements to the program and ensure a smooth transition.
“There is nothing more important than the health and well-being of our most vulnerable children,” said HFS Director Theresa Eagleson. “With more providers than ever and dedicated care coordinators focused on finding the right services, we look forward to improving healthcare options and outcomes for these children through the YouthCare program.”
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“DCFS is deeply committed to ensuring vulnerable children and families receive the quality health care they deserve,” said DCFS Director Marc Smith. “Throughout this process, we have made it a priority to listen to stakeholders and advocates who share our mission to care for vulnerable children, and the program HFS is moving forward with today is better because of those voices. Over the coming weeks and months, we will continue to work closely with our community of providers, stakeholders and families to ensure this program lives up to its obligation to provide quality care to our children.”
YouthCare is a specialized healthcare program designed specifically to address the needs of DCFS youth in care and former youth in care. The program brings unprecedented levels of care coordination to DCFS youth, with 188 care coordinators currently focused solely on connecting youth and families with providers and ensuring they receive the quality care they deserve. Twenty more are scheduled to be hired.
It moves away from the old fee-for-service model, with families lacking advanced care coordination and left to navigate today’s complex health care system and find providers and services on their own. With YouthCare, families have a personal care coordinator who helps manage the youth’s overall healthcare, researches providers, and schedules appointments.
The YouthCare network is significantly more robust than the current DCFS system, with more providers across nearly every major category, including primary care physicians, vision and dental. Additionally, the 3,300 professionals of Northwestern Medicine were recently added to the YouthCare network.
Eighty-nine percent of providers currently serving DCFS youth are now a part of the YouthCare network, with ongoing outreach to any providers not yet a part of the network. To help ensure a smooth transition, YouthCare has also established a continuity of care period to ensure families can access current providers through February 28, 2021, even if those providers have not joined the YouthCare network. Those who ultimately choose not to join the network may be offered single-case agreements to care for an individual child.
