Doing Our Part to Address Free Care
January 29, 2015 – San Francisco, CA – There has been a lot of buzz about the federal government’s recent reversal of the free care rule, a policy that had effectively prevented schools from billing Medicaid for health services provided to their general education population. The reversal of this policy is the biggest thing to hit school Medicaid billing programs in the last decade and people are talking about what this will mean for school-based health programs and the children that rely on these services across the country.
Having seen the impact of lower reimbursements to schools in California, Paradigm has been working toward a resolution to free care from the very start. Over the past decade we have published articles, given presentations, engaged policymakers and state agencies, and connected with countless groups seeking to promote greater access to health care in schools. Change takes time, but each year the chorus of voices grew louder and eventually this coalition of advocates achieved their goal of seeing the free care policy reversed in December 2014.
We are incredibly proud to have worked with several organizations who were central in bringing about this momentous change, including:
- Healthy Schools Campaign, a children’s health advocacy organization based in Chicago, Illinois, made the free care policy one of their platform issues in 2012. In the intervening years, HSC worked closely with the U.S. Department of Education and Health and Human Services to discuss the huge impact a reversal of this policy could have on school health programs nationwide. Healthy Schools Campaign contacted Paradigm after reading our issue analysis of the free care policy on our website, starting a relationship that has continued for several years.
- George Washington University and the Childhood Asthma Leadership Coalition partnered to investigate the impact of the free care policy on school health programs. Recognizing that a reversal of this policy would mean more money for schools to provide asthma management services (among many others), they began a campaign to educate people on the issue and work toward a resolution. Paradigm was honored to work with researchers at GWU, providing historical information on the free care policy and supporting their campaign as it gained momentum.
- Most recently, LEAnet, a national network of Local Educational Agencies, began focusing on the obstacles to children’s health posed by free care. In August 2014, LEAnet hosted a national convening in Washington, D.C., which brought together children’s health leaders, advocates, and various associations to strategize ways for working with federal agencies to achieve a positive resolution to free care. Paradigm was honored to attend this meeting and present a summary of the history and impact of the free care policy to attendees.
As the policy reversal of free care moves into the implementation phase, and state’s begin to roll out billing for the health assessments and treatments provided by schools to children on Medicaid, we will continue to monitor and track the progress along with the strong network of advocates who worked so hard to bring about this opportunity.
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