Campaign seeks to stop proposed state policy change

New limits seek to restrict Medicaid eligibility for children in developmental programs

A statewide policy change could lead to more than 100 children in the El Dorado area to lose medically necessary developmental services as the Arkansas Department of Human Services looks to control costs and prevent an “over-utilization” of programs.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services has announced proposed changes on new limits to restrict Medicaid eligibility for children in developmental programs, called the “one-therapy rule.”

The proposed policy change will go into effect on July 1, and will lead to more than 100 children in El Dorado with developmental delays to lose medically necessary developmental services. In the next 18 months, the policy change will also affect over 3,300 children in the state.

A statewide campaign called “Save My Services” opposes the changes to department’s policy and is supported by the Arkansas Developmental Disabilities Provider Association (DDPA). There are currently over 100 existing programs that service children with disabilities in Arkansas.

In El Dorado, children with developmental delays are enrolled in ECCEL, a Developmental Day Treatment Clinic Service (DDTCS), which is prescribed by a doctor as a medical need.

“What (DDTCS) does is focus and get an individualized program plan,” said Grady Tracy, chief operating officer at the South Arkansas Developmental Center for Children and Families. “That’s the most powerful part of the program that is going to be lost … those individualized program plans.”

Instead of receiving treatment prescribed in individualized program plans, the department is proposing to place children in state-funded programs such as ABC, Head Start and Early Head Start.

Tracy said these are lesser services because in DDTCS, the Interdisciplinary Team writes individualized programs to meet a specific child’s needs. ABC, Head Start and Early Head Start are more curriculum based and not individualized, making it less beneficial to the children, Tracy said. Also, they are not required by state regulations to use the same credentialed staff, affecting staff-tochild ratios.

The Department of Human Services proposed changing the current eligibility requirements for these programs with a “one-therapy rule,” which means that children who do not exhibit developmental delays or disabilities in physical, occu-

pational or speech, will not get treatment in day habilitation to overcome delays during critical stages of development.

Tracy said the South Arkansas center is qualified to provide ABC services, but also to provide DDTCS services for children that exhibit disabilities in personal, social, adaptive, cognitive, communication and motor skills. The DDTCS program is where over 100 children in El Dorado will lose their services.

“We’re taking away a medically necessary service that is so critical for the children to overcome or minimize their delays,” Tracy said. “That’s what upsets us the most.”

DDTCS is a five hour a day program, available five times a week. The “one-therapy rule” will limit the hours children currently receive DDTCS services.

Melissa Stone, director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities, told THV11 that some patients receive hours of speech, physical and occupational therapy each day through Medicaid. She said that’s rarely necessary, so the department is setting a cap at 90 minutes per week, per service. Stone also said the cap was created to help control costs and make sure the services aren’t being “over-utilized.”

A representative of the Department of Human Services was not immediately available Monday to answer questions from the News-Times on the “one-therapy rule.”

Tracy said if the delays are not identified and not worked on in ABC, Head Start or Early Head Start, the delays will follow that child to kindergarten and beyond.

Developmental delays can be improved and even overcome through early intervention in programs such as DDTCS.

Mia Lewis is a parent of a child who was in the DDTCS program. Her daughter had a swallowing disorder, which qualified her for speech therapy to help with oral motor function.

“Because she had problems with the oral motor functioning in her mouth, I was concerned about who I was going to be able to trust or where I was going to take her,” Lewis said. “The DDTCS program made it possible for me to feel confident that my child would be safe and well provided for.”

The DDTCS program in El Dorado also provides transportation, which Tracy said is not offered with ABC, Head Start and Early Head Start. If a child doesn’t have transportation to get the services, they have no access to receive the treatment they need.

“In rural Arkansas, transportation is critical to get services for the children,” Tracy said. “If you take the transportation away, a lot of parents might end up keeping their child at home. If the child is not getting any services at all, that would be terrible.”

The DDTCS program in El Dorado also provides transportation to children from surrounding communities including Magnolia, Camden, Strong and Huttig who are in the program.

The “Save My Services” campaign urges the public to contact local state legislators and the Arkansas Governor’s Office to ask them to remove the “one-therapy rule” requirements so that children with special needs can continue to have access to these critical services.

“The (“one-therapy rule”) will close down some of the smaller centers across the state,” Tracy said, adding that the group is hoping the Legislature will stop the change before it goes into effect. “If there was a medical reason, we could get behind that. But it’s just to save money.”

To find out more about the campaign, visit savemyservicesar.com.

Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or krigdon@eldoradonews.com.