Asthma Education for Medicaid Patients

Asthma is the most common serious chronic disease among Missouri’s school-aged children, and hospitalizations caused by this condition cost our state approximately $100 million each year. 

Unfortunately, many families lack the knowledge necessary to properly control their children’s asthma, meaning kids suffer needlessly from unrecognized asthma triggers in their homes or the improper use of medication.

When a child’s asthma is not well managed, flare-ups can drive them to the emergency room where they will receive costly but temporary treatment. If the underlying problems are left unaddressed, however, the child's asthma attacks will continue and taxpayers will have to foot the bill for repeated trips to the ER.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) passed a ruling in August allowing the costs of asthma education recommended by a physician to be reimbursed beginning in January 2014. If Missouri adds a line item in the budget to fund these expenses, Medicaid recipients in our state will be able to receive instruction on how to treat their children’s asthma and remove triggers from their homes.

I met with the St. Louis Chapter of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation, an organization that already provides asthma education to at-risk families and connects them to home assessments, and they are strong proponents of this element of Medicaid reform.

Rather than wasting state dollars to give more able-bodied adults free healthcare, we need to strengthen the services offered to our current Medicaid recipients by covering vital components of wellness, such as asthma education and dental care.

Children should not have to undergo rounds of expensive treatment in the ER for a condition that can be managed. Adding asthma education reimbursement to our state’s budget is an important piece of Medicaid reform that will have a lasting impact on the health of children in our state.