Biden Administration Withdraws Medicaid Parental Consent NPRM

In an unfortunate, but not unexpected development, the Biden Administration withdrew their proposal to streamline Medicaid reimbursement for schools in late December. The proposed rule would have only required districts to notify parents that they are billing Medicaid for IDEA-related services. AASA was told that it was unlikely they would be able to finalize the regulation before the end of the Administration given the confusion by disability rights’ groups as to how the regulation would impact Medicaid services outside of school. 

Since 2005, AASA has voiced concerns that presenting a separate signed consent form for Medicaid reimbursement has been confusing and problematic for parents. While ED attempted to improve the initial parental consent regulation in 2013 for services that are delivered as part of a student’s individualized education program (IEP), there is still considerable confusion from parents about why they should complete the consent form and why the school needs a separate permission to bill Medicaid for healthcare services they are delivering to their child in schools. AASA and our partners documented this issue in our January 2023 report.

We will continue to seek out opportunities with the new Administration to rescind this regulation and to clarify in IDEA that this is an unnecessary, inappropriate administrative burden for schools that harms our ability to recoup funding for IDEA related services.