Access to Services for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs and Their Families: Concepts and Considerations for an Integrated Systems Redesign.

Access to services for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) have typically emphasized coverage, service, timeliness, and capability. Yet families of CYSHCN continue to describe a fragmented health care system with significant unmet needs. For many years, the concept of access to services has focused on the services themselves, rather than starting with the needs of CYSHCN and their families.

Variations in state-level definitions: children with special health care needs.

Unlabelled: Multiple agencies at the federal and state level provide for children with special health care needs (CSHCN), with variation in eligibility criteria. Epidemiological studies show that 3.8%-32% of children could be classified as children with special health care needs, depending on the definition and method of determination used.