Mental screening for Massachusetts young to begin

Now, annual checkups for the nearly half a million Massachusetts children on Medicaid will carry a new requirement: Doctors must offer simple questionnaires to detect warning signs of possible mental health problems, from autism in toddlers to depression in teens. Over the last several years, such questionnaires have increasingly become the standard of care in pediatric practices, but spurred by legal action Massachusetts is jumping ahead of other states by requiring the screens for all its young Medicaid recipients.