Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Division of Health Care Finance is building the infrastructure to implement school-based services to all eligible Medicaid-enrolled children. - Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Division of Health Care Finance (KDHE-DHCF), the single state Medicaid agency will build the needed infrastructure to support state and local education agencies (LEAs) in implementing school-based services (SBS) to reach all eligible Medicaid-enrolled children. This project will ensure delivery of behavioral health services (including mental health and substance use disorder), services for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and other Medicaid-eligible services to eligible students beyond those with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). Through this project, KDHE-DCHF will help improve the health of school-aged children through a supportive system of SBS allowing children to grow emotionally, grow physically, and develop a healthy foundation for their path to adulthood. A multifaceted stakeholder group has, and will continue to provide, input into the development of proposed goals and activities. The state education agency (Kansas State Department of Education [KSDE]), LEAs, statewide advocacy groups, providers, and parents of Medicaid-enrolled students are part of this group. Goals to implement SBS to all eligible Medicaid-enrolled students beyond the IEP/IFSP include: 1. Strengthen the existing school-based delivery system in Kansas by increasing understanding of current challenges; by developing solutions through surveys, focus groups, and meetings as part of the needs and infrastructure needs assessments; by identifying and reviewing successful SBS models and best practices in other states; and by developing training and technical assistance for schools and providers. 2. Build the needed infrastructure of billing support, staffing, monitoring, and technical assistance enabling schools to maximize billing and reimbursement, and to address school district administrative claiming (SDAC) to ensure schools are appropriately billing and KDHE-DHCF is providing sufficient oversight of federal dollars. 3. Update state policy manuals and author a state plan amendment (SPA) to implement behavioral health, autism, and other Medicaid-eligible services to all eligible Medicaid-enrolled students in Kansas using the “free care” rule. 4. Improve access to care through a mixed delivery system allowing LEAs to bill for, and additional Medicaid-enrolled providers to deliver, eligible services in the schools and bill for these new SBS while providing technical assistance for schools to become approved sites/locations for provision of services. By expanding SBS outside of IEP/IFSPs, LEAs will obtain financial support for services they may already provide and leverage federal Medicaid funds rather than use limited state education funds. Existing barriers for service providers such as Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and other Medicaid-enrolled providers will be identified and removed allowing for provision and billing of the new SBS. Together, this will help ensure a strong network of SBS providers with a sustainable reimbursement structure. The $2,097,882 total budget will support the addition of two full-time staff (project director and program manager) and two consulting firms that work with KDHE-DHCF (Public Consulting Group, LLC, and Gainwell Technologies) to provide the human resources to lead the activities to achieve stated goals. Costs will include travel, supply, and other expenses. This project will build the needed infrastructure by strengthening existing systems, providing technical assistance on billing processes equipping schools to properly submit for payment of SBS, educating parents on service availability, instituting a monitoring system for schools to ensure accurate billing, implementing a sustainable provision of services, and amending the language in the Medicaid State Plan to enable payment for implementation of SBS beyond the IEP/IFSP.
