"An Act relating to medical assistance coverage for targeted case management services and for rehabilitative services furnished or paid for by a school district on behalf of certain children; and providing for an effective date."

Targeted Case Management

Targeted case management services are those which assist individuals in gaining access to needed medical, social, educational and other services. It allows the state to reach out beyond the bounds of the Medicaid program to coordinate a broad range of activities and services necessary to the optimal functioning of a Medicaid client. Medicaid allows states the option to cover targeted case management services. Current Alaska law restricts these targeted groups to substance abusers, chronically mentally ill adults, and severely emotionally disturbed children. The proposed change would let the Alaska Medicaid Program offer targeted case management to various groups of Medicaid recipients, potentially refinancing existing general fund expenditures.

The Department of Health and Social Services would begin by using targeted case management to fund family preservation services for children who are subject to, or at risk of, abuse and neglect. Further expansion of the service would be contingent on successful implementation of family preservation services.

School-Based Rehabilitative Services

In 2002, the Alaska Legislature amended the state Medicaid statute to allow school districts to enroll as Medicaid providers and offer rehabilitative and other services. The Department of Health and Social Services is unable to reimburse school districts for rehabilitative services due to the restrictive definition of rehabilitative services in AS 47.07.900, which limits providers to community mental health centers and drug and alcohol treatment centers.

By clarifying and making the definition of rehabilitative services as inclusive as the federal definition, this legislation will allow school districts to bill Medicaid for more of the services they provide to children with Individual Education Plans (IEPs).

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