In my school district social workers have been asked to report serice
minutes on ALL students for possible medicaid reimbursement (fee for
service).  Only parents of medicaid students have given release of
information permission - correct?  We are reporting (giving
information) on students whose parents have not given permission.  We
do not know who is medicaid or not when reporting.  It seems like we
are violating privacy rights.  Please help.

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Request for Question Clarification by fsw-ga on 23 Jun 2002 18:52 PDT

Hello Timmie,

I wanted to ask for a bit of clarification so that I might be able to
assist you. To whom are service minutes being reported? When you say
you are "giving information," do you mean that sensitive clinical
information is being released, or that general aggregate statistics
are being released? Is information being released verbally,
electronically, in hardcopy? Additionally, does the school district
have any formal policy which could be forcing the release of this
information?

The School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) may have someone
who can provide you with some guidance.

SSWAA Web Site:
http://www.sswaa.org/index.html

Also your state National Association of Social Workers chapter may
have a resource person who can assist you.

Listing of State NASW Chapters
http://www.socialworkers.org/chapters/default.asp

Your state social work licensing board is another potential resource.

State Social Work Licensing Boards (select your state in the drop-down
box at bottom of page): http://www.aswb.org/members.shtml


Social Work Search Engine
http://www.socialworksearch.com

If you can clarify your situation a bit, I may be able to help you.
What state are you in?

Regards,
fsw

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Clarification of Question by timmie-ga on 24 Jun 2002 03:52 PDT

Hello fsw,
1)Service minutes are being reported to TAMES, an agency who gets
money from Medicaid for the school district because the student
receives social work service, of course if the student gets Medicaid.
2)Illinois
3)The information is given on a hardcopy
4)What is being reported is "Jane Doe" received 240 minutes of direct
social work service for May" The student name is given, what school
student attends, birthdate, and number of minutes and generally what
they are for.
5)To my knowledge all school districts get Medicaid money for students
but how they go about doing this to protect privacy rights I am trying
to find out
6)TAMES is adamant that we are doing the right thing & we are saying
we don't think so.  We are reporting on every student receiving social
work whether they are receiving Medicaid or not.
7)Yes there is a policy to do this, but is this right?
Thank you for your response.  This is hard to explain.
Timmie

Hello again,

Thanks for clarifying. I think I understand better now. But it's hard
to answer your question without seeing the contract or agreement your
school has with Tames. When you refer to Tames, I am assuming that you
mean Tames HRS. Is that correct?

Tames HRS
http://www.tameshrs.com

I'm going to give you a short answer and a long answer. The short
answer is that point 5 of your clarification seems to sum up what you
are looking for. Therefore I suggest that you contact the
organizations below and ask to speak with someone who is knowledgeable
in the area of School Social Work Medicaid fee-for-service reporting.
These organizations should be able to refer you to someone who can
competently address your concerns and suggest policy changes if any
are needed in your district.

School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA)
P.O. Box 2072
Northlake IL 60164
847-289-4527 (voice mail answering system)
847-289-4642 (conference voice mail answering system)
e-mail your request to: SSWAA@aol.com 

Illinois Association of School Social Workers (IASSW)
(scroll down the page to find contact info according to region)
http://www.iassw.org/ 

IASSW has a page of legal links which may perhaps be helpful to you:
http://www.iassw.org/Link-SchoolLaw.htm


Now here's the long answer. I think the answers to your questions lie
in two separate places:

1-The school district's contract or service agreement with Tames: 
Those types of agreements usually stipulate the guidelines for
confidentiality and how information shared between the two parties
(Tames and the schools) is protected. It is probably worth a look at
that contract to see what it says to be certain that it includes
confidentiality for students who are NOT Medicaid-eligible.

2-The school district's own policies on releasing student information
to 3rd parties bound by service agreements and the district's policy
on release of information to Tames (if it has a separate policy for
this.) As with #1 above, the guidelines for handling identifying
information and the confidentiality issues should be addressed in
these policies. They should also address release of information if
there is no parental consent on file. I checked out the Illinois Board
of Education and some other legal sites, but I didn't find the clarity
I was hoping for Illinois.  But either of the two associations I
listed above should be familiar with state law on the subject of
parental consent and fee-for-service reporting.

To say if the district's release of information on non-Medicaid
students is "right" would depend on what is stated in the district's
contracts and policies. If the policies and contracts protect the
confidentiality of information on all students, regardless of their
Medicaid status, then it's probably ok from a confidentiality
standpoint. But just because something is correct according to a
policy, it doesn't always feel ethical.

Best wishes! I hope someone from one of the school social work
associations can help you find the information you are seeking!

fsw