Attendant Care Funding Approved (KS)
July 20, 2010
Federal health officials have approved a measure that will allow Kansas school districts to continue to get reimbursed for services delivered to special education students.
Kansas Health Policy Authority officials announced Monday that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, has agreed to a cost settlement that allows for the payment of attendant care services for special education students in a school setting. Those particular services were no longer eligible for Medicaid reimbursement as of July 1 of this year.
"Schools are under a federal mandate to provide special education services in the least restrictive environment,â?? said Andy Allison, KHPA executive director, in a news release Monday. "These services are essential for them to fulfill that mandate."
Under the cost settlement agreement, school districts now will be able to get reimbursement for services provided by social workers and psychologists when they hadn’t previously. Also under the agreement, districts will continue to get reimbursed for services related to specialized transportation, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech, language and hearing services.
According to KHPA, the new plan permits school districts to be reimbursed for actual costs of providing school-based attendant care services. Districts had been reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis at less than the actual costs they had incurred. KHPA said districts will also be reimbursed retroactively for costs incurred since July 1 of last year as part of the cost settlement agreement.
KHPA said school districts are expected to share an additional $5 million to $10 million because they will be reimbursed for the social worker and psychologist services under Medicaid. Peter Hancock, KHPA spokesman, said those figures were arrived at using costs that districts had incurred in the past, projected costs and surveying some districts about the Medicaid services they are using.
Attendant care services are for basic care, such as hygiene, tube feeding, mobility, administering medications and other services. All those services are geared toward allowing a special education student to function in a school environment. Had the cost settlement not been approved, school districts likely would have had to cover the costs of attendant care services from their general fund or special education budgets.