GOSHEN COUNTY – The Wyoming State Legislature could soon consider a bill that would allow school districts to bill Medicaid for special education services rendered to eligible students. 

According to a proposed house bill sponsored by the Joint Appropriations Committee, there will be $5 million dollars allocated in federal funding and $5 million in Wyoming School Foundation Program funding for the reimbursement of special education expenditures for school districts. If money is left over, that money will be put back into the foundation funds for another year of use.

Kari Eakins, Chief Policy Officer for the Wyoming Department of Education, said right now that Wyoming is the only state that doesn’t utilize Medicaid funds for eligible students. 

“This is Wyoming for the first time saying that they may go down the road of seeking reimbursement for some Medicaid services that are performed in schools,” she said. 

Trina Nichol, special education director for the Goshen County Schools, said this bill would help in keeping the school foundation fund healthy.

“It might make it a little easier for Goshen County to add additional staff if we really need that,” said Nichol.

She also said possible full reimbursement would allow the district to better serve their students’ needs, as well as their families.

Nichol said, “Families who do receive Medicaid are always worried ‘How’s that going to affect my benefits?’ and this doesn’t affect their individual benefits whatsoever.”

It is estimated that Wyoming would gain roughly $2 million annually with a probable increase in the future.

A couple of years ago, Nichol said, the state capped special education reimbursements to school districts state-wide, which hurt Goshen County schools. 

“Unfortunately for Goshen County school district, the amounts they capped us at, we were short a couple of positions,” said Nichol. “We’ve had to use general funds to backfill that shortfall.” There is a separate active bill to try and remove that cap.

“Hopefully what this means is, one, if they have these funds coming in, then for sure that cap will get removed so the state is fully reimbursing the districts for special education again,” said Nichol.

Nichol also said there is only so much money for the state to give.

Nichol said, “I think probably looking at that the state’s like OK, since gas and oil where we got a lot of our money from has slowed down, where are we going to get revenue from to help keep programming going.”

One worry Nichol, along with other district special education directors, had was “How we do know? Parents don’t come in and give us their child’s Medicaid number. How will we get that information?”

The draft bill states that school districts with at least 25 Medicaid eligible students would be required to bill the department of health for eligible school-based services. 

Any amendments to these services would be negotiated by the director of the Wyoming department of health and the United States department of Health and human services.

Nichol said, “A big condition to this bill is the (Wyoming) department of health has to negotiate with the federal (department of health and) human services to get a waiver to allow us to even do this.”

Nichol also pointed out, “Medicaid every year changes requirements and what’s eligible and what’s not eligible for it to be reimbursed.”

The department of health and the department of education would be adding one full time employee each to help with billing and dispersal of funds.

In a draft report received from Eakins, the departments would also anticipate adding a Professional Teaching Standards Board (PTSB) licensed School Psychologist and School Social Worker.

For now, the bill is still in draft format and has not been submitted for an actual vote. According to the draft, the regulations of this draft would go into effect on “July 1, 2021, or upon state plan or waiver approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, whichever is later.”

Kicker quote

“I think it’s good. It’s responsible of them to look into it,” said Nichol.