Medicaid and Head Start: Opportunities to Collaborate and Pay for Upstream Prevention

This issue brief draws upon initial experiences from Maryland Medicaid’s early efforts to explore connecting one Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) with one or more local Head Start programs in the interest of linking families to needed services — including at least one upstream preventive service — and addressing the social determinants of health. Maryland Medicaid is meeting with a Medicaid MCO, Head Start representatives and a representative from the Maryland Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to pilot the delivery of Medicaid-funded group nutritional counseling in Head Start settings.