Fifty-six million children and youth spend more than a quarter of their day at school in the United States. With today’s youth facing a changing and growing number of health challenges, especially around mental health, the ability of schools to help positively shape the social, physical, and mental growth of their students is vital. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and exacerbated many of these challenges, particularly the youth mental health crisis, which existed before COVID-19 but was worsened by the social isolation and other factors associated with the pandemic.
To support youth health, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to undertake a joint initiative to promote Medicaid School-Based Services (SBS) through a Medicaid SBS Technical Assistance Center (TAC). Econometrica, Inc., was selected as the prime contractor to support this TAC. Econometrica is supported by Mathematica Policy Research, Westat, and the National Center for School Mental Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The TAC is charged with supporting the delivery of these services; improving and strengthening access to physical and behavioral health services for students; reducing the Federal administrative burden for States and localities; and reducing barriers to the provision of school-based physical and behavioral health services. To carry out this work, the TAC assists and expands the capacity of State Medicaid agencies (SMAs), State educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and school-based entities to expand their SBS offerings as a way to increase crucial healthcare access for children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as well as to meet Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) requirements.
Now in its second year, the TAC is planning a new series of national webinars and virtual events for 2024 and 2025. This series currently includes:
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- September 19, 2024: Reviewing a Year of Progress in Medicaid SBS
- November 14, 2024: Medicaid and CHIP Funding for School Preventive Behavioral Health Services
- January 16, 2025: Implementing Mental Health Initiatives in Schools
- February 13, 2025: Best Practices for Billing and Documentation for Common Medicaid SBS
- March 20, 2025: Unique Needs of Frontier/Remote/Rural Communities and LEAs in School-Based Health
- May 8, 2025: Children with Complex Health Care Needs (CCHCN) and Medicaid SBS
Anyone can register to attend these webinars. Please contact SchoolBasedServices@cms.hhs.gov to be added to the distribution list for registration information. In addition, SMAs and SEAs will be invited to attend working discussions to support their State initiatives around Medicaid SBS. More information about Medicaid SBS and the TAC can be found here.
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Econometrica is a small business research and management consulting organization based in the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan area that is committed to improving the human condition by providing high-quality, cost-effective analytics and support that enables our clients to solve the challenges of today’s world. We collaborate with Federal agencies, State and local governments, philanthropic and nonprofit clients, and private-sector partners in the public health, healthcare, data analytics, housing, and finance sectors. Econometrica started as an organization focused on econometric analysis and now has more than 26 years of proven excellence in consulting, with staff across the United States. To work with us on your next project, visit us online or email us at Info@EconometricaInc.com. To explore the benefits of working for us, visit our careers page. Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and Instagram.