This week, on the two-year anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it is awarding  grants to 18 states for implementation, enhancement, and expansion of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) school-based health services. As previously discussed on Say Ahhh!, the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act included a number of provisions related to school-based health services and Medicaid including updated guidance, a new technical assistance center, and $50 million for the Secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS) to award grants to states.

States each receiving up to a $2.5 million over three years fall into three buckets:

Implementation states – including states that have yet to expand coverage of and billing for Medicaid and CHIP services provided to schools beyond students with individualized education programs (IEPs):

• • Alaska
  • Kansas
  • Maryland
  • Oregon
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin

Expansion states – including states that have expanded coverage and billing of Medicaid or CHIP services provided in schools beyond what is in a student’s IEP but not yet to every Medicaid or CHIP coverable service:

• • Delaware
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • North Carolina
  • Oklahoma
  • Pennsylvania

Enhancement states – including states that have expanded coverage and billing of Medicaid services provided in schools beyond IEPs to include any Medicaid or CHIP covered service provided to a Medicaid- or CHIP-enrolled student by a Medicaid- or CHIP-participating provider:

• • Kentucky
  • Massachusetts
  • Minnesota

CMS also announced two new resources from the technical assistance (TA) center including a Medicaid school-based services readiness checklist tool to help state Medicaid agencies draft a state plan amendment and additional technical assistance FAQs on the TA website including FAQs related to managed care and CHIP.