Table of Contents
Inland Empire Health Plan and Riverside University Health System partnered on a childhood lead screening prevention effort, boosting Riverside County’s testing rates by 11% in 2025. The collaboration reflects a targeted effort between a regional Medicaid insurer and a public health system to close a persistent gap in pediatric preventive care.
Why the Childhood Lead Screening Partnership Began
The collaboration resulted from Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures indicating that 58.95% of children in Riverside and San Bernardino counties got lead testing in 2024. That figure highlighted a significant gap in childhood lead screening rates, prompting IEHP and Riverside County to identify providers needing further support to close it.
A Goal of Making Screening Routine
The insurer and public system identified providers needing further support, operating with the goal of making lead screenings a routine aspect of annual pediatric visits. This provider-level approach suggests the partnership focused on strengthening clinical workflows rather than relying solely on broad public awareness campaigns to improve childhood lead screening rates.
How the Childhood Lead Screening Collaboration Worked
“Riverside County’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program was the ideal partner for this work,” said Dulce Fernandez, IEHP’s director of quality management, in a July 9 news release. “Not only do they bring expertise in blood lead testing, but our collaboration also helped strengthen relationships across IEHP’s network of providers.”
Building Provider Relationships Alongside Testing Rates
Fernandez’s comments suggest the partnership delivered value beyond the direct childhood lead screening improvements, also helping strengthen IEHP’s broader relationships with its network of pediatric providers, a byproduct that could support future quality improvement initiatives beyond lead testing specifically.
Screening Recommendations Behind the Childhood Lead Screening Effort
Screenings are generally recommended for children at 12 and 24 months, or under 6 years old if they do not have a previous test on record. A blood test is the only method for determining lead poisoning, according to the release, underscoring why consistent childhood lead screening at these specific age milestones matters clinically.
Why Early Detection Matters
Because blood testing remains the only reliable method for identifying lead exposure, gaps in childhood lead screening can leave affected children undiagnosed during critical developmental windows, when early intervention has the greatest potential to limit long-term health effects associated with lead exposure.
What This Partnership Signals for Public Health Collaboration
The 11% improvement in childhood lead screening rates offers a concrete example of how Medicaid managed care organizations and county public health departments can combine clinical data analysis with targeted provider outreach to move the needle on preventive care measures. As IEHP and Riverside County continue this work, the model may offer a useful template for other regions grappling with similarly low lead screening compliance rates among their pediatric populations.
Why This Model Could Scale Beyond Riverside County
The IEHP-Riverside collaboration also highlights a replicable framework that other Medicaid managed care organizations facing similar HEDIS performance gaps could adapt: using quality data to pinpoint specific underperforming provider groups, then pairing a health plan’s network relationships with a county health department’s specialized clinical expertise. As more Medicaid plans face pressure to close preventive care gaps amid tightening budgets and shifting quality reporting requirements, partnerships structured this way, targeted, data-driven, and built on existing public health infrastructure rather than new standalone programs, may offer a cost-effective path to measurable improvement in childhood lead screening and similar pediatric quality measures nationwide.
