State Makes Massive Stride Toward Ensuring Child Health

Amendment to the Medicaid State Plan Leverages Millions of Federal Dollars to Help Louisiana School Children

The Health and Education Alliance of Louisiana (HEAL) applauds the state’s efforts to leverage federal Medicaid dollars to ensure health for Louisiana’s School children.

In a document issued on April 24, 2020, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) issued a positive ruling to amending the state’s Medicaid plan.  This amendment broadens the provisions governing school-based medical services. 

 Prior to the amendment, a Medicaid-eligible child had to have a health service included in an Individualized Education Plan for Special Education for a school to be reimbursed for medically necessary health services. This translated to reimbursement for health services for approximately 12-15% of the student population. 

 Now, student population served has been broadened to include special education students, as well those students with 504 plans and health plans that require a medically necessary health service.  It also broadened the type of services and service providers that are eligible for reimbursement. Services such as personal care services and ABA therapy for students with Autism are now included.

“What this means for schools is that they will be able to access millions of dollars in federal Medicaid reimbursement for health expenses at no additional cost to the state,” said Connie Bellone, CEO of HEAL.  “It is a wonderful advancement that has significant implications for the health and education of our children.”

HEAL has been working with schools and districts across the state to leverage Medicaid dollars for vital health care services provided in the school setting.  “Before this change, schools had to go through a lot more steps to recover Medicaid dollars for necessary health services,” said Bellone.  “We know that health barriers have a significant impact on academics and future success, and this step will allow thousands more children to receive the health support they need for a bright future.”

This work is the result of a collaboration among many entities.  Led by the state Department of Health and supported by the Governor’s Office of Administration, the process for broadening services to include more children and additional services has been many years in the making.  “We’ve been working on the ground with schools across the state, helping them to leverage critical dollars to help their kids—dollars that were being taken out of education to meet necessary health needs,” explained Bellone.  “Now, we can continue that work, but we can access millions more to make our schools successful.  This is a huge win for our state’s children.”