Changes to Medicaid and School Programs Announced by the Florida Department of Education

March 21, 2019

Accelify would like to share the following changes to the School District Administrative Claiming and Medicaid Certified School Match programs recently announced by the Florida Department of Education.

If you have any question regarding these changes or would like to learn more about how Accelify can assist your District with maximizing your Medicaid reimbursements, please contact info@accelify.com or our Administrative Claiming and Medicaid Certified School Match program contacts listed below.

Administrative Claiming Updates:
Several updates to the Administrative Claiming program will take effect Q2 2019:

1. Change to EMACS program management: While the program was previously managed with Seminole County, the FLDOE will now independently manage the EMACS system. Districts can still contract with an outside vendor to manage the administrative claiming time study and invoice process and Accelify will continue to provide our AcceliTIME system and administrative claiming services to maximize reimbursements for our clients. If you are not currently using our services, we’d love the opportunity to show you how you can benefit from them.

2. A combined paper and electronic time study process will no longer be supported and 7 day response time: The state is no longer allowing districts to use both a paper-based and electronic time study process. While our clients all use our electronic time study system (AcceliTIME), we know many districts are still using a paper-based process or a combination of the two. We highly recommend that districts convert to an electronic process, especially because the FLDOE has also modified the requirement for completing time study moments to 7 working days regardless of the method used to collect time study samples. An electronic system, which includes automated participant reminders and simpler tracking of form completion, will make this timeline much more manageable and produce better time study results.

3. Job titles no longer need to be added to time study forms: An attestation of job title will be included on the time study sample form beginning Q2 2019, which will eliminate the need for time study participants to print their title next to their signature. This is a positive change as it eliminates issues relating to mismatched titles that occurred in the past when participants used a title next to their signature that did not match the title pre-printed on their time study form.

4. Removal of examples from forms and systems: The state will no longer allow for examples on paper and electronic time study forms. Accelify is updating its system to comply with this change.

5. Responses outside of school hours will be considered invalid: If a moment falls outside of school hours, the sample moment will now be considered invalid. Accelify is updating its system to allow the import of working hours at the school level in order to ensure all moments fall within the appropriate timeframe.

Medicaid Certified School Match Updates:
New legislation has opened up Medicaid claiming for students who do not have an IEP. While the process is not finalized, in order to participate in claiming for these services, a Plan of Care (POC) will need to be in place for students receiving billable services outside of an IEP. This POC document will contain much of the same information currently provided in an IEP. In addition, while there is no confirmation as to whether an evaluation will be needed, we feel some type of statement by a provider will be required to justify the need for service. Your current screening/assessment/evaluation process may be allowed to to satisfy this requirement. Lastly, parental consent will need to be collected for students like the consent currently collected for ESE students.

For more information on how Accelify can assist with implementing these changes, contact:

Sam Soppe (Medicaid Certified School Match)
FL State Coordinator
rlsoppe@accelify.com
(803) 422-4687

Bill Nelson (Administrative Claiming/EMACS)
FL Client Manager
wjnelson@accelify.com
(813) 837-8220