Moving from Spending to Investment: A Research Agenda for Improving Health Care Financing for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs

Dennis Kuo is a primary care pediatrician with a special interest in children with disabilities and medical complexity.  His academic work focuses on family-centered care and family-identified health care needs of children with medical complexity, and more recently evolved to care coordination design and health care system reform. Dr. Kuo’s prior work funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration includes the Arkansas System of Care State Implementation Grant for Children with Special Health Care Needs, the Maternal and Child Health Research grant, and the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems project.  He is the current Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children with Disabilities (COCWD), following six years of serving on the Executive Committee of the COCWD, and he is a member of the Board of Directors of Family Voices.

Meg Comeau is a nationally recognized expert on the impact of Medicaid and federal health care reform on children with complex care needs. She brings more than 15 years of health care delivery and financing experience to her role as principal investigator for the Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) to Advance Care for Children with Medical Complexity and as co-principal investigator of the Catalyst Center, a project focused on insurance coverage for children and youth with special health care needs. Meg is a member of the Leadership Circle for the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice (IPEP) at Boston Children’s Hospital and also serves as faculty for IPEP’s Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills.

Jeff Schiff is committed to creating an equitable patient and family-centered learning heath care system. He served as the Chief Medical Officer for Minnesota Human Services (Medicaid) from 2006-2019. In 2009 he was co-chair of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality committee that created the first national set of Medicaid core measures for children. In delivery system redesign he helped develop the Minnesota health care home program and the accountable care organization. Dr. Schiff is a past chair of the Medicaid Medical Directors Network and a former president of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is a pediatrician and emergency medicine physician.  

Christopher Stille leads a group of 50 pediatric faculty, practices and teaches primary care pediatrics, and conducts pediatric health services research and quality improvement efforts focused on improving systems of care for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) in the medical home. His research is focused on improving communication and coordinated care for CYSHCN between primary care clinicians, subspecialists, and family caregivers. He is also the Principal Investigator of a Maternal and Child Health Bureau-funded national network to conduct health systems research for CYSHCN. Dr. Stille is a co-chair of the Standing Committee on Patient Experience and Function of the National Quality Forum. Additionally, he is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council on Children with Disabilities of the American Academy of Pediatrics.