Case Managersandtheir Clients: Perceptions of Interventions Used in Prenatal case Management

Abstract

In the United States, Medicaid, a federally funded health insurance program, covers low-income individuals, including pregnanat women. In many states, Medicaid reimburses for case management. The puprose of these studies was to obtain desccriptive information necessary to operationally define case management interventions. A qualitative design with semi-structed interviews was used in two separate studies of prenatal case management. Data from the two studes were used to identify interventions used during prenatal case management. Cas management clients mentioned an average of 4.9 ± 1.0 types of interventions and case managers mentioned 4.7±1.1 types of interventions. Clients mentioned coordination, education and monitoring more often, whereas case managers were more likely to mention coordination, education and monitoring. The overall similarity in the frequency of types of interveions mentioned by clients and case managers implies that the NLT typology of interventions has validity for use in prenatal case management of high risk, low income women. The use of the six of the seven types of NILT interventions and the similarity of categories between clients and case managers provides evidence about the applicablity of NILT for prenatal case management.