KANSAS DEBATE

Appeals to protect children in group homes from being released prematurely

Youth officials aim to stop ‘bouncing’

State youth officials Wednesday said they have established an appeals process to prevent children from being removed from group homes and mental health treatment facilities before they are ready because of funding problems. “We don’t want children to be bounced or put in inappropriate places,” said Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Gary Daniels. “We don’t want a bunch of youth thrown out with no place to live,” said Don Jordan, acting commissioner to the Juvenile Justice Authority. But some lawmakers and caregivers were skeptical.

“What I’m hearing is that people are being moved and they don’t really feel like they have a choice,” said state Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden.

Bethell is chairman of a subcommittee that is investigating recent complaints of children being removed from facilities after the federal government stopped paying its share of their treatment because the children had been in the facilities longer than the 140- or 180-day limits spelled out in the state’s Medicaid plan.

Facility operators and families say the children were removed when they needed to remain to receive treatment. But since the federal government stopped making payments for certain children, Daniels and Jordan said the state is now paying the entire bill.

SRS and Juvenile Justice Authority have instituted a review process for children nearing the time limits to determine if they should remain in the facilities, and they have established an appeals process if there is disagreement about where the child should be placed. Bill Craig, executive director of the Lakemary Center in Paola, said the appeals process is working now, but that several children fell through the cracks before it was put in place. “It’s working as of a week ago after pressure was brought to bear,” Craig said. “There were some casualties during this period of confusion.”

Daniels and Jordan said the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has increased monitoring of the use of Medicaid, a program funded jointly by the federal and state governments to provide health care to low-income children and Kansans with disabilities.

The Medicaid state plan has time limitations on how long Medicaid reimbursement can be used to pay for services in facilities for children with mental illness. Until recently, however, those time limitations weren’t enforced, officials said. There are approximately 700 children in these facilities. Daniels said the state will have to take over funding for the children who must stay in longer than the time limit. That will cost an additional $1.4 million through July 30, he said.

Craig, the service provider, said the state shouldn’t yield to the federal government on the reimbursement issue because he has seen other states able to get the feds to pay its share for the children who stay beyond the time limit. “Let’s be a little more aggressive,” he said.

Scott Rothschild
9 March 2006

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/09/youth_officials_aim_stop_bouncing/?city_local

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