EPSDT and Poor People's Medicine

Abstract

We are most concerned that Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) as advocated by Foltz and Silver in Pediatrics, may result in a reaffirmation of "poor people's medicine," across the country. The figures cited by Foltz and Silver that show that only 800,000 out of 10,000,000 eligible children have been screened after 18 months are misleading. These figures do not include hundreds of thousands of children who are receiving comprehensive care from pediatricians, family physicians, and health centers and who therefore do not show up in screening statistics.