Inclusion Policy for Service Providers

The Medical Home Portal (Portal) seeks to provide reliable information and resources to help clinicians, care coordinators, and families care and advocate for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN). Toward that end, the Portal, with its partners, maintains searchable databases of nationwide and local service providers (organizations, companies, or individuals) identified as useful for CYSHCN and their families in 6 states (chosen from the drop-down, upper left of every page). We focus on providers with whom/which an interaction with the child/family is expected. We consider valuable web-based services that do not include such interactions to be “resources” and link to the best of them from relevant pages (see Linking to Other Websites).

Most of the Portal’s nonprofit, government, and educational listings are shared with us by 2-1-1 organizations (2-1-1 North America) and other information and referral (I&R) entities that generally follow the Alliance of Information & Referral Services (AIRS) Standards for inclusion/exclusion. The remainder are collected by Portal staff and collaborators through a variety of methods. Currently, Portal information sources include:

The Portal lists nonprofit, community-based, and professional service providers; exceptions may be made for commercial providers that are the sole source or an exceptional source for key services. The following types of services/providers for CYSHCN and their families are eligible for inclusion:

• 2-1-1 Call Centers, crisis centers, and comprehensive and/or specialized information and referral services, including:
  • Specialized information sources that maintain current and accurate information about agencies such as subsidized housing, licensed and registered childcare providers, physicians, and dentists.
  • Specialized information sources that maintain information about assistive technology or adaptive equipment providers or related information.
• For-profit and nonprofit medical, dental, and mental health care organizations and professionals, including: hospitals; pediatric urgent care; regional clinics; community health centers; specialty clinics; pediatric dental clinics; pediatric medical homes; and mental health clinics.
• Relevant support groups, grassroots organizations, and community organizations that serve individuals and/or families.
• Toll-free hotlines that offer information about health and human services or direct assistance for individuals and/or families.
• Educational organizations, including (but not limited to) early education providers, school districts, boards of education, and private schools that serve children or youth with disabilities or behavioral/emotional disorders.
• For-profit organizations providing unique services/products not adequately available from the nonprofit sector and known to be beneficial to CYSHCN and/or their families; or services that are free, reduced cost, or charged on a sliding fee scale. Examples include (but are not limited to) recreational facilities, prescription assistance programs, and companies that provide assistive technology for people with disabilities.

Note on cost of service: While most government, nonprofit, and educational health and human services are offered to the public for free, at low cost, or as payable by a third party (such as Medicare or Medicaid), if a service’s cost is considered to be generally prohibitive the service may not be included in the Medical Home Portal.

The Portal reserves the right to prioritize, edit, and limit entries. Inclusion does not imply endorsement of an organization or its individual programs or services, nor does omission reflect disapproval.

While we strive to maintain accurate information in the database, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. In addition to the information sources mentioned above, the Portal also uses phone calls and emails to organizations and information from organization websites and other web sources to update the database.

The Portal currently provides information and referral for services and resources with a concentration in Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio and Rhode Island. This Statement of Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria serves as a foundational document for the collective Medical Home Portal community resource database, and may be slightly modified by each partner agency in order to reflect the needs of their local community.

The Medical Home Portal reviews the inclusion/exclusion criteria on a regular basis (every four years at a minimum) to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the communities we serve.