Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Health Billing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Auburn district to stay in Placer County consortium but not join DHCS cohort 4 yet
Summary
After an extensive briefing on the state'led multi-payer fee schedule, the superintendent recommended—and the board directed—remaining in the Placer County consortium to provide feedback while deferring early onboarding (cohort 4) because of workload, privacy, and implementation concerns.
Superintendent Britney presented a detailed briefing on the Department of Health Care Services' multi-payer fee schedule and Auburn's options for participation. She described the initiative as still under development and framed the choice as either joining an early onboarding cohort, leaving the consortium entirely, or staying in the consortium to provide input without committing to cohort 4.
"It is a plane being built, but it's not yet flying," the superintendent said, urging caution about early onboarding while noting potential reimbursements and operational trade-offs. Staff estimated prior-year Medi-Cal reimbursements of about $79,000 districtwide and modeled a best-case small-group counseling reimbursement at roughly $12,000 per counselor annually, but also warned of additional staff workload (an estimated 30 minutes of data entry per session) and HIPAA-related privacy demands.
Board members asked about parental consent, co-pay exposure for families with private insurance and high deductibles, third-party billers (MBT), and the participation agreement (PPA) required for DHCS onboarding. Given the balance of potential offsetting revenue and implementation risk for a small district, staff recommended—and the board agreed—to remain in the PCOE consortium to continue learning and to provide feedback but not to enter cohort 4 at this time. Staff will continue collecting implementation data and report back.
