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Board approves program to bill insurers for school-provided counseling and health services; families may opt out
Summary
Trustees approved a program allowing the district to collect insurance reimbursements for services already provided (counseling, some psychology and nursing support). Staff said families will not see increases to their insurance costs and may opt out by not providing insurance information.
The Los Alamitos board approved a new administrative agreement to allow the district to bill health insurers for certain student services already provided in school, including counseling, some school psychologist services and occasional nursing support.
A parent-board member, Mrs. Parzani, pulled the item to ask for clarification after noticing an insurance-information field in the data confirmation process. District staff (Speaker 5) said the program is designed to recover reimbursement for services the district already provides and is available through a state consortium model. "Our families will not see any of those increases to their own insurance costs," staff said, and added that the district will comply with HIPAA and FERPA privacy rules when sharing information with insurers.
Board members asked whether the program duplicated Medi-Cal billing; the superintendent and staff explained that Medi-Cal billing has historically been used for certain special-education services but this program is broader, enabled by more recent state opportunities and is intended to be revenue-recovery for existing services. Staff also said families may opt out by not providing insurance information during data confirmation.
The board voted to approve the item 5-0. The action was presented as administrative authorization to pursue reimbursement and did not change families' access to services, according to staff remarks at the meeting.
