Lead poisoning in Minnesota Medicaid children.

This article presents data on blood-lead testing in Minnesota children from 1999 through 2003. The number of Minnesota children younger than 6 years of age who were tested for blood lead increased from approximately 38,000 in 1999 to 61,000 in 2003. The rate of blood-lead testing in 9- to 30-month-old children enrolled in Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare, the state's Medicaid programs for children, increased from 17% to 29% between 1999 and 2003. The rate of elevated blood-lead levels (10 microg/dL or greater) in all tested children declined from 6% in 1999 to 2.7% in 2003. However, the rate of elevated blood-lead levels in children enrolled in the 2 public programs in 2003 (3.4%) was 2-fold higher than that in children who were not on Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare (1.5%). The percentage of all children with elevated blood-lead levels who were retested within 3 months increased from 39% in 1999 to 50% in 2003.