OSERS Provides Strategies for Drawing Down School Based Medicaid Funding

To help schools maximize Medicaid reimbursement, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) has produced a short step by step guide for revising State Plans to include all eligible students. Currently only 16 States utilize Medicaid funding to maximize school-based services such as routine health screenings, physical and occupational health therapies, and mental health services for all qualifying students. State plans generally include students covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); however, federal eligibility extends to all Medicaid eligible students. Unfortunately, most State Plans refer only to IDEA eligible students. The guide notes, “Having a State plan explicitly allow reimbursement for services to all Medicaid-enrolled students could enable thousands of additional students to gain access to crucial health services and ensure that your State has access to all available funds to support them.”

Read the guide here.