A bill designed to ensure that uninsured and underinsured schoolchildren receive the care they need will be introduced by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. D-Colo., in the next few weeks.
In a visit Friday to Adams City Middle School, Bennet said the bill, called the Healthy School Act of 2009, is designed to make sure that Colorado’s 40 school-based health centers and 1,700 similar centers across the United States receive the financial support they need to help children who might not otherwise seek care.
“People to often see schools as places that deliver only one thing, which is a quality education. But for our kids, we need to make sure we are providing quality health care as well,” said Bennet, surrounded by kids at the Commerce City school.
“School-based health centers like the one we are in are on the front lines of fighting for accessible, affordable and quality health care for kids in school,” said Bennet. “Colorado school-based health centers provide valuable services to our kids. These centers give health care to those students who might not otherwise seek care.”
Under the current setup, the centers provide health care to children with Medicaid or Children Health Plan Plus (CHP). For those with no insurance, the centers provide services on a sliding scale.
The services provided by the community health centers include immunizations, well-child checks, sick visits, sports physicals and mental health services.
Bennet said the problem is that the health care centers face a number of barriers which keep them from treating children enrolled in CHP and Medicaid.
One of the biggest challenges for the centers is complicated billing procedures, said the senator.
“We have a tangled bureaucracy of payment that tie the hands of these centers as they work to provide health care. What this means is that services get provided, but health care centers don’t get the reimbursements they should.”
“It’s not because the money isn’t there but because the bureaucracy tangles it up,” he said.
He said the health centers need the reimbursements to buy supplies, to hire and maintain staff and provide a wide range of health services.
As a result, the federal government needs to simplify its billing for services and to provide more uniformity and less administrative burden on the centers, Bennet said.
He said the bill he is working on with with Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan will help fix the problem.
Under the bill, the legislation would:
– Ensure the federal government has a procedure in place to pay for services provided by school-based health centers.
– Establish a certification procedure for states to certify to the secretary of state that the state has implemented procedures to pay for CHP and Medicaid-provided health care.
– Establish a minimum criteria for “primary health services” to be offered by the school care centers. The primary services would include comprehensive health and mental health assessments, intervention and treatment as well as oral health, social and health education services.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
