Well-child visit outreach: the Bright Futures schedule, Medicaid and children’s coverage, reminders, school forms and teen privacy

Well-child visit outreach invites families whose children are due or overdue for a checkup to book one. For a pediatric or family practice it is useful, plain outreach: the visits follow a published schedule, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program cover them by law, and a family that misses one can catch up at the next. It is also easy to get wrong. A reminder can name a vaccine or a screening a parent did not expect, a text campaign can run past the limits of the federal healthcare text exemption, a back to school ad can turn a checkup into a sports form sale, and a message about a teen can reach a parent with something the teen was told would stay private. This guide covers the schedule, the Medicaid and CHIP rules, coverage, who to invite, reminders, school and sports forms, teens and privacy, plans and ads.

Related topics have their own guides and are not repeated here. Practice-wide marketing for children’s care is covered in our guide to pediatric practice marketing, vaccines in our guides to Vaccines for Children provider marketing and adult vaccine outreach, lead testing in our guide to childhood lead screening outreach, Medicaid plan rules in our guide to marketing to Medicaid patients, and the text rules in detail in our guide to text message appointment reminders.

What a well-child visit is, and the schedule it follows

The schedule pediatric practices work from is the Bright Futures/American Academy of Pediatrics Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care, called the periodicity schedule. The current PDF says it was updated in February 2025, reflects recommendations approved in December 2024, and that no changes were made to clinical guidance or footnotes in the recommendations published in 2025. It also says the recommendations are updated annually, so check the date on the PDF before a campaign goes out and again before each new season.

The schedule lists visits in infancy at the newborn visit, at 3 to 5 days, by 1 month, and at 2, 4, 6, 9 and 12 months; in early childhood at 15, 18, 24 and 30 months and at 3 and 4 years; and then once a year from 5 through 21 years. It also lists a prenatal visit for parents who are at high risk, for first-time parents and for those who request one. At each visit it lists history, measurements, sensory screening, developmental and behavioral items, a physical exam and procedures such as immunization, and it marks some items as a risk assessment, with appropriate action to follow if it is positive.

HRSA, which supports the Bright Futures program, describes what providers do at a well-child visit in plain terms: ask about the child’s emotional and physical health, examine the child and track their growth, vaccinate as recommended, and share information to help children and youths stay healthy. That plain description is a good model for the page a family will read. The schedule itself opens by saying each child and family is unique and that it is designed for children who are growing and developing in a satisfactory fashion; it is a guide for clinicians, not a promise a marketing page should make for them.

• Say what the visit is in the words HRSA uses: a checkup, growth, questions about health, vaccines as recommended, and advice for the family.
• Do not list on a public page every screening the child will get at a given age. Items depend on age, risk and the clinician’s judgment, and a parent who reads “blood test at 12 months” may cancel rather than ask.
• Name the schedule and its date when you cite it, and link to the AAP PDF.

Medicaid’s checkup benefit for children and young adults

Medicaid.gov describes the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment benefit as comprehensive and preventive health care services for children under age 21 who are enrolled in Medicaid. The federal law that defines it, 42 U.S.C. 1396d(r), says the screening services must at a minimum include a comprehensive health and developmental history (including assessment of both physical and mental health development), a comprehensive unclothed physical exam, appropriate immunizations, laboratory tests (including lead blood level assessment appropriate for age and risk factors), and health education (including anticipatory guidance). It also covers vision, dental and hearing services, and screening at other intervals when medically necessary.

Vision screening has its own federal and professional guidance, covered in our guide to child vision screening outreach.

Developmental and autism screening at the 9, 18, 24 and 30 month visits, and early intervention referrals, are covered in our guide to developmental and autism screening outreach.

The schedule is set by each state. The statute says screening is provided at intervals that meet reasonable standards of medical and dental practice, as determined by the State after consultation with recognized medical and dental organizations. Medicaid.gov adds that states may elect to use a nationally recognized pediatric periodicity schedule, naming Bright Futures, and that a separate dental periodicity schedule is also required. So the visit ages in your outreach should come from your own state’s Medicaid schedule, which may or may not be the Bright Futures schedule. Look it up in the state Medicaid provider manual and quote it with its date.

Two items have their own federal rules. Medicaid.gov says all children enrolled in Medicaid are required to receive blood lead screening tests at 12 and 24 months of age, and that a child between 24 and 72 months with no record of a previous blood lead screening test must receive one; our childhood lead screening guide covers that outreach. It also says children eligible for the benefit should receive all age-appropriate vaccines as recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and that the Vaccines for Children program provides federally purchased vaccines to children who are enrolled in Medicaid, uninsured, underinsured, or American Indian/Alaska Native; see our Vaccines for Children guide.

The state informs families; the practice books them

Under 42 U.S.C. 1396a(a)(43), the state Medicaid plan must provide for informing all persons under 21 who are eligible of the availability of these services and of the need for age-appropriate immunizations, providing or arranging for screening where it is requested, arranging for corrective treatment that screening discloses, and reporting to the Secretary each year. Medicaid.gov names the report as Form CMS-416. The duty to inform families sits with the state; your plan contracts may give your practice its own outreach duties, so read them.

That split matters for your wording. A practice can say that Medicaid covers checkups for children and young adults under 21 and invite families to book. It should not write as if it were the state or the plan (“Medicaid requires you to bring your child in”), and it should not say a family will lose coverage for missing a visit unless the state or plan has said so in writing. We could not find, on October 30, 2026, a federal rule that ends a child’s Medicaid coverage for a missed checkup.

CHIP, private plans and what to say about cost

Medicaid.gov’s CHIP Benefits page says that in a separate CHIP, states must provide well-baby and well-child visits and have the flexibility to decide the frequency of those visits; states may use Bright Futures or a schedule of their own. Under 42 CFR 457.520, a state may not impose copayments, deductibles, coinsurance or other cost sharing on the well-baby and well-child care services covered under its CHIP state plan, and those services include, at a minimum, routine physical examinations as described in Bright Futures, the lab tests that go with them, immunizations and related office visits as recommended by ACIP, and routine preventive and diagnostic dental services.

For private coverage, 42 U.S.C. 300gg-13(a)(3) requires a group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual coverage to cover, with no cost sharing, the evidence-informed preventive care and screenings for infants, children and adolescents in the comprehensive guidelines supported by HRSA. HRSA’s Bright Futures page says that this includes the Bright Futures recommendations, and that certain group health plans and insurance issuers must provide that coverage. The word certain is doing work there: some plans are not subject to the rule, and a visit can turn into a sick visit with its own cost if a new problem is treated.

• Keep the recommendation and the coverage apart. “Checkups are recommended at these ages” and “your plan may cover them” are different sentences with different sources.
• Say “Medicaid and CHIP cover checkups for children” only for the programs and ages your state’s rules support, and do not promise a family on a private plan a no-cost visit.
• Offer to check coverage before the visit, and say what the family will be told if something else is treated at the same visit.

Who to invite, and from where

The cleanest list is your own: children and young adults the practice already sees whose records show a checkup is due or overdue by the schedule your state uses. HHS says appointment reminders are permitted under the HIPAA Privacy Rule without an authorization, and our text reminder guide covers the HIPAA and FCC rules for it. New families come from your website, your local search listing, referrals and community events.

• Build the list from your own records and the schedule’s ages, not from a bought or rented list of families. Our guide to buying patient leads explains why.
• Invite the family, not the diagnosis. A child with an open problem is not a reason to send a checkup reminder that mentions it.
• Do not send checkup reminders to families who have asked not to be contacted, and drop children who have moved their care.
• If your state Medicaid agency or a plan sends its own reminders, coordinate so the family does not get three messages in a week from three senders.

Reminder texts, calls and letters

The FCC rule at 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(9)(iv) exempts certain healthcare calls and texts to a wireless number from the prior consent requirement. Its listed purposes include appointment and exam confirmations and reminders and wellness checkups. The conditions include sending only to the wireless number the patient provided, stating the provider’s name and contact information, no telemarketing, solicitation or advertising, no billing or debt collection content, no more than one message per day and three per week, an opt-out in each message, and honoring opt-outs immediately. The full list and how to set it up are in our text reminder guide.

Two points apply to checkup campaigns in particular. A back to school push that sends a reminder each day for a week can pass the limit of three per week. And a checkup reminder that also offers a discount, a membership or a new service is no longer only a reminder, so it falls outside the exemption and may bring in the HIPAA marketing rules. Keep the reminder to the checkup.

Write each message as if someone other than the parent might read it. Under 45 CFR 164.522(b), a provider must accommodate reasonable requests to receive communications by alternative means or at alternative locations. Ask at intake which number, email or address the family wants used, and in which language.

Sample text: “[Practice name]: [Child first name] is due for a checkup. Book at [phone] or [link], [days and hours]. Reply STOP to opt out.” Sample letter line: “Our records show [Child first name] is due for a well-child checkup. These visits are a time to check growth, talk about health and development, and give vaccines as recommended. Call [phone] to book.” Neither names a vaccine, a test, a diagnosis or a cost.

School and sports forms without the upsell

Back to school and the start of a sports season are when families think about checkups, and a practice can say so. The risk is in turning the checkup into a form sale. A school or league form is the school’s or league’s document; the checkup is the care. We could not find, on October 30, 2026, a federal rule that makes completing a school or sports form part of the Medicaid checkup benefit, so ask your state Medicaid agency and your plans how a visit that includes a form is billed before you write a word about it.

• Invite families to bring the form to the child’s checkup. “Bring your child’s school or sports form to the checkup” is accurate and useful.
• Do not advertise a quick form-only visit as if it were a checkup, and do not suggest the form replaces the visit on the schedule.
• If a page says free, 16 CFR 251.1 applies: the offer must be what it says, and any conditions must be stated clearly at the outset.
• Offering something of value to a Medicaid or Medicare beneficiary to choose your practice can bring in the beneficiary inducement law at 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7a(a)(5). Have counsel review any gift, raffle or giveaway tied to booking.
• A checkup page is a good place to link your sports medicine or school-based health center services, as information, not as a bundle.

Teens, parents and privacy

The schedule runs to 21, and the teen years add items a family may not expect. The Bright Futures schedule lists a tobacco, alcohol or drug use assessment from age 11 and depression and suicide risk screening from age 12, among others. Those items make teen checkups worth doing; they also make teen messages harder to write.

Under 45 CFR 164.502(g), a parent or guardian with authority under applicable law to make health care decisions for an unemancipated minor is generally treated as the minor’s personal representative. Section 164.502(g)(3) sets out exceptions where a minor may lawfully consent to a service or where state law permits or prohibits disclosure to a parent, and the practice follows that law. Our pediatric practice guide covers this in more detail.

• Send checkup reminders about the visit only, with no mention of any screening, result or topic discussed with the teen.
• Ask counsel which contact method your state’s minors’ consent laws call for when a teen has had confidential care, and set your reminder tool to follow it.
• Do not reuse a teen’s portal or phone number for family marketing.
• Once a patient reaches the age of majority under state law, they are the patient for privacy purposes. Update contacts and ask them how they want to be reached.

For crisis lines on teen pages, use 988 for anyone in crisis, by call, text or chat, and 911 when a life is in danger. Our guide to depression screening outreach covers that wording.

Plans, ads and the checkup page

If the practice speaks for a Medicaid managed care plan, hands out its materials or tells families which plan to pick, the plan marketing rules at 42 CFR 438.104 and the plan contract come into play. Plan reward programs belong to the plan; do not promise a family a plan’s gift card or reward on your own page unless the plan has approved the wording. Our guide to marketing to Medicaid patients covers this.

For Google Ads, target place and search terms such as checkup or well-child visit, not patient lists, and do not address the reader as the parent of a child with a condition; Google’s personalized advertising policy restricts health-related targeting. Under 15 U.S.C. 45, the claims on the page must be true and not misleading, so do not promise that a checkup will find or prevent any condition.

The checkup page itself should say what the visit is, which ages the practice sees, the languages offered, how to book and how to check coverage. Make the page and the booking form usable with a keyboard and a screen reader; the Department of Justice’s guidance on web accessibility and the ADA explains why.

Illustration: two checkup pages

Illustration: a page reads “Back to school special! Free sports physicals with every checkup. Medicaid requires your child to be seen before school starts or you could lose coverage. Get the shots your child needs today.” It sells a form as a bundle, uses free without terms, speaks for the state with a claim we could not confirm, and pushes vaccines without saying a clinician will discuss them.

Illustration: a second page for the same practice reads “At [Practice name], we see children and young adults from birth through [age] for checkups. A checkup is a time to check growth, talk about health and development, and give vaccines as recommended. Medicaid and CHIP cover checkups for enrolled children; ask us to check your plan. Bring any school or sports form to the visit. Call [phone] to book, [days and hours].” It says what the visit is, keeps coverage to what the rules support and invites the form without selling it.

Checklist before a well-child campaign goes live

• The visit ages come from your state’s Medicaid schedule or the Bright Futures schedule, named and dated, and the AAP PDF date was checked before launch.
• Medicaid, CHIP and private coverage are described only as their rules and your plans support, and no page promises a no-cost visit to every family.
• No page says a family will lose coverage for missing a visit, and no page speaks for the state or a plan.
• Reminders name the practice and the checkup only, with no vaccine, test, diagnosis or cost, and stay within one per day and three per week.
• Each text has a STOP opt-out, opt-outs are honored at once, and contact preferences from intake are followed.
• Teen reminders follow the method counsel approved for your state, and confidential topics never appear in a family message.
• School and sports forms are invited to the checkup, not sold as a bundle, and any free offer states its terms at the outset.
• Counsel has reviewed any gift, raffle or plan reward mentioned in the campaign.
• Ads target place and search terms, not patient lists, and the checkup page and booking form work with a keyboard and a screen reader.

Fluoride varnish at well visits, the FDA 2025 action on fluoride supplements, Medicaid billing by state and dental home referral are covered in our guide to fluoride varnish in medical offices.

How we help

We build websites, local search, Google Ads, patient lead generation and AI front desk tools for independent practices and health businesses, including pediatric and family practices. For well-child outreach, that means a site that quotes the schedule and the coverage rules as written and dated, keeps the recommendation and the coverage apart, sends reminders that stay within the federal text rules and say only what they need to, and books checkups without selling forms. Our tools are built with HIPAA in mind. We confirm in writing what a BAA covers before any patient information flows through a tool, and if it is not covered, we do not route patient information through it.

Sources

• Bright Futures/AAP: Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care, periodicity schedule (updated February 2025)
• HRSA: Bright Futures (date last reviewed March 2024)
• Medicaid.gov: Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (archived copy, October 9, 2026)
• Medicaid.gov: CHIP Benefits (archived copy, March 2, 2026)
• 42 U.S.C. 1396a: State plans for medical assistance (paragraph (a)(43))
• 42 U.S.C. 1396d: Definitions (subsection (r), early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment services)
• 42 CFR 457.520: Cost sharing for well-baby and well-child care services
• 42 U.S.C. 300gg-13: Coverage of preventive health services
• HHS FAQ: Are appointment reminders allowed under the HIPAA Privacy Rule without authorizations?
• 47 CFR 64.1200: Delivery restrictions (paragraph (a)(9)(iv), healthcare calls)
• 45 CFR 164.502: Uses and disclosures of protected health information: General rules (paragraph (g), personal representatives)
• 45 CFR 164.522: Rights to request privacy protection for protected health information
• 42 CFR 438.104: Marketing activities (Medicaid managed care)
• 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7a: Civil monetary penalties
• 15 U.S.C. 45: Unfair methods of competition unlawful
• 16 CFR 251.1: Guide concerning use of the word free and similar representations
• Google Ads: Personalized advertising policy
• U.S. Department of Justice: Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA

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