Learn Best Practices for documenting your school-based Medicaid program.

The local news reports wind chills are -20 or colder and there’s more snow on the way.  I sip my steaming cup of cocoa and watch the all-too-familiar scrolling marquee with its long list of school closings and delays. Schools in the Midwest and all over the country have had snow closings for the past week. Everyone loves snow days – sleeping in, homemade doughnuts, and the shimmering beauty of the ice-encrusted trees.

When students are not in attendance, whether it’s a snow day, power outage, teacher conference day, or some other reason, school districts cannot bill for direct school-based services provided to students.  Billing for a service on the day a student was absent is a common audit finding. 

One way to avoid billing for services on days when students are absent is to establish a policy requiring providers to document their service within 24 hours of delivering the service.  This strategy also helps to eliminate documentation errors.

Another way to avoid billing for services on days when students are absent is to include quality assurance activities in your billing process to specifically look for direct services on non-student days. 

If you need help with best practices or your quality assurance process, please contact us.  We are happy to help you!