Date of Award

1995

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Business Administration

Department

Business

First Advisor

Arlene Taich

Second Advisor

Betty LeMasters

Third Advisor

Kevin Kast

Abstract

This thesis project will be an Applied Learning Expository Study, creating an Implementation Manual for the provisions set forth in House Bill 564, the School Health Initiative.

The manual will be specific to St. Charles County. It will take into consideration the needs of the St. Charles community relative to the health of its school children.

Passed by the Missouri legislature and signed into law by Governor Mel Carnahan in the summer of 1994, House Bill 564 aims to improve health care access for Missouri's children by creating an innovative infrastructure for primary care delivery. It is a multi-faceted bill that provides a variety of opportunities for communities, such as the expansion of the Legal Expense Fund and to arrange for collaborative practice agreements between physicians and nurse practitioners. Another aspect of the bill, the School Health Initiatives portion, provides for primary and preventive health care for Medicaid eligible children. The bill provides for these services in two ways: Health Grants for start up costs, and schools as Medicaid providers. The crafters of this landmark legislation began with the premise that "our children are our future." They sought to develop a plan for the provision of health care that would not only meet the requirements at the federal level of Medicaid enrollment of Missouri's population, but to create a vehicle to meet the early needs of children. If children are brought into the health care system at a young age, early assessment and diagnosis of health status can be determined. The bill creates a vehicle for the delivery of health care services to those children who need it. It also provides a funding mechanism to pay for the plan.

The crafters of the bill also recognized that all communities are different and the needs of each will vary. This flexible legislation allows communities to assess their own needs and develop a plan dictated on the basis of their needs.

Successful implementation of this legislation will require broad support from many different areas of St. Charles County. This manual addresses those areas, assists in assessing the communities needs, and lays out a step by step plan for the implementation of the provisions of House Bill 564 in St. Charles County.

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