Commission to study whether special‑education services can be billed to Medicaid or private insurers; members flag process barriers

The Bergen commission took up its charge to study whether certain special‑education related services can be billed to Medicaid or private insurance and how the process works in practice.

Tom introduced the item and John—drawing on multiple years of practice—answered the permissibility question directly: "The answer to can they is absolutely, positively, unequivocally yes. It's stated in the IDEA that schools are allowed to bill Medicaid or private insurance for related services," John said. He and other participants then shifted to practical barriers: John and others described a burdensome Department of Public Health (DPH) approval process for Medicaid claims and said that, in practice, districts often see only a small return after administrative deductions.

Participants flagged additional concerns about private insurance: Brian noted districts cannot compel parents to use private plans, and John warned that billing private insurance can impose policy limits on families' out‑of‑school access to services (for example, insurers may cap speech sessions per year). One participant summarized the core recommendation: the commission should document not only which services are billable but how billing works, who bears administrative costs, and what percentage of reimbursements districts actually retain.

Civic Solutions Group (contracted through a Transforming Children's Behavioral Health effort) is running a related survey of superintendents over the summer; participants suggested coordinating with that work and sharing the results. The commission assigned follow‑ups: compile lists of currently billable services and codes, gather existing guidance from DSS/DSS documents and vendors, and request that Civic Solutions Group share its survey timeline and findings with the commission. No vote was taken.