WASHINGTON — The Biden administration wants more health care providers to talk to parents about keeping children safe around firearms, as data shows kids are increasingly dying by suicide, accidents and homicides involving guns. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has given states the green light to allow Medicaid providers to counsel parents and caregivers of children about firearm safety and injury prevention. Public health advocates hope the conversations become as routine as physicians talking to parents about car seats, water safety, substance use and other safety issues impacting kids.
Various types of guns are displayed for sale at Uncle Dan's Pawn Shop on Aug. 16, 2022, in Mesquite, Texas. “For the first time, it’s allowing CMS to consider using Medicaid funds to fund these types of screening questions,” said Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon and firearm injury prevention researcher at Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in New York.
At Northwell, every patient who walks through the door is asked if they have access to a firearm and whether it is locked up, unloaded and stored separately from ammunition. Northwell offers those with firearms gun locks, but very few health care providers do this. Incorporating firearm counseling into Medicaid could change things.
“The hope is that this normalizes this question as part of routine medical care,” Sathya said. “When you start funding things, that is the huge incentive for hos.