---
title: Medicaid Behavioral Health Care Use Among Children in Foster Care
description: "**Summary:**This fact sheet details behavioral health care use and expense for children in foster care and outlines how this can inform policy. Medicaid expenditures for children in foster care receiving behavioral health services are significantly higher than for other children…"
url: "https://bridges4mentalhealth.org/hub/access-to-mental-health-services/medicaid-behavioral-health-care-use-among-children-in-foster-care/"
updated: "2026-07-31"
category: Access to Mental Health Services
tags:
  - Audience
  - Child welfare professionals
  - Data
  - Mental health professionals
  - TA sites
---

# Medicaid Behavioral Health Care Use Among Children in Foster Care

**Summary:**This fact sheet details behavioral health care use and expense for children in foster care and outlines how this can inform policy. Medicaid expenditures for children in foster
 care receiving behavioral health services are significantly higher than for other children in
 Medicaid.

 

**Application:**These findings suggest opportunities for States to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of behavioral health care for Medicaid-enrolled children in foster care.

 

**Source: **Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc.

 

[Read More](https://www.chcs.org/media/Medicaid-BH-Care-Use-for-Children-in-Foster-Care_Fact-Sheet.pdf)

 

 

 

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