SystemSpecial Education & Disability Services

School-Based Medicaid Billing & Claiming

School based Medicaid billing where every claim leaves with its five proofs, and no eligible session goes unbilled

Every Medicaid claim leaves with its five proofs, and no eligible session goes unbilled.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo2,742sessionsof therapy, nursing and transportation checked overnight at five gates in one week, an agent at each
demo46sessionscleared with the license renewal the Credential agent found in the HR file: $4,692 back in the claim
demo214sessionseligible but never billed, found before the 12-month filing limit, worth $15,408
target100%of claims released with all five proofs attached
In short

What is School-Based Medicaid Billing & Claiming?

School-Based Medicaid Billing & Claiming checks every therapy and nursing session before a district bills Medicaid, so school based Medicaid billing leaves with five proofs per claim. Agents check enrollment, IDEA parental consent and this year's notice, the IEP order, the provider's credential and the session note, find the proof that clears a stop, and find eligible sessions nobody billed before the 12-month filing limit. The Medicaid claims coordinator approves each weekly batch, and the business office releases it.

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Updated

The problem

Why school based Medicaid billing still runs on spreadsheets

School based Medicaid billing pays a district only when five records agree for each session: the student was enrolled in Medicaid that day, the family gave the one-time written consent and got this year's notice, the IEP ordered that service at that frequency and duration, the provider was licensed (and an assistant supervised), and the note has every element the state requires. Today the Medicaid claims coordinator exports the provider service log, the IEP system's service pages and the state's monthly enrollment file every Monday and matches them in a spreadsheet by name and birth date.

She checks consent dates in scanned IEP packets, emails HR about licenses that look expired and emails providers about notes missing a signature or a time, and most fixes arrive after the cut. A license renewal HR never keyed in stops a whole caseload. Late paper logs, the health office's nursing log and summer sessions go unbilled until the 12-month filing limit passes. The business office sees the money weeks later in the remittance and cannot tie it to the sessions, and in an audit each claim's evidence is rebuilt from five systems.

typical454.9million dollarsthat one state's school-based program may have improperly claimed, a federal audit found in September 2026, citing unsupported time study coding and unlicensed providers
typical551.4million dollarsimproperly claimed by another state's school-based program, in a federal audit published in 2024
Where the coordinator's hours go on one weekly batchestimated
By hand29 hours
With the solution3.8 hours
  • Exporting the service log, IEP pages and enrollment file and matching them8 → 0.5 h
  • Checking consent and this year's notice in scanned IEP packets5 → 0.5 h
  • Asking HR about licenses that look expired3 → 0.3 h
  • Emailing providers about incomplete notes6 → 1 h
  • Building the claim file and tying the remittance back to sessions4 → 1 h
  • Chasing random moment time study answers3 → 0.5 h

Estimated split of one weekly batch of about 2,700 sessions, by hand and with the solution, in hours.

How it works

How a session becomes a claim

An agent at each of five gates, each checked by another; the claims coordinator approves, the business office releases.

What comes in
Records in6 systems · service log, IEP, HR, state Medicaid
Agents at work
Eligibility agentenrolled that day
Then
Consent agentconsent + annual notice
Order agentIEP service, frequency
Then
Credential agentlicense on the date
Documentation agent7 note elements
Then
Recovery agentnever billed
Audit pack agentfive proofs per claim
A person decides
Claims coordinatorclears and approves · business office releases
What comes out
Claim batch
Five proofs per claim
Audit pack
One case, step by step

One week of school based Medicaid billing, gate by gate

Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 9:05 a.m., at Marlow Bay Unified School District. The week 42 batch (October 12–16) was cut Monday at 11:00 p.m., and the agents ran overnight. Lorena Bautista, the Medicaid claims coordinator, opens the checkpoint.

  1. 01Overnight

    2,742 sessions through five gates

    Five gate agents

    The week's sessions for 1,968 students from 180 providers, worth $198,340 at the state fee schedule, move as dots through five gates: enrolled in Medicaid, parental consent, IEP order, provider credential and session note. Each gate shows its agent, how many passed and how many it stopped, and stopped sessions pile below the gate with the reasons in plain words. At the right end: 2,529 sessions ready to bill, $181,548.

    46 of 213 stops already have their proof. Clearing them adds $4,692.

  2. 029:05 a.m.

    The proof that clears a stop, not just the stop

    Credential agent

    Lorena opens the credential pile: 46 occupational therapy sessions by Hannah Kepler, OTR/L, for 14 students, October 1–16. HR shows her license expired September 30. The agent searched her HR file, found the renewal certificate uploaded October 2 and dated September 28, valid through September 30, 2028, and confirmed it on the state license lookup. A second agent, the Documentation agent, checked the gate's passes.

    Proposed: clear 46 sessions, and ask HR to update the date · confidence 0.98, above the 0.95 threshold.

  3. 03One click

    A person clears it, and the claim grows

    Lorena Bautista · Medicaid claims coordinator

    Lorena clears the 46 sessions with the certificate cited and a reason code. The dots move on, and ready to bill rises to 2,575 sessions, $186,240: 93.9% of the week, for 1,912 students from 174 providers. HR gets a task to fix the date in the source record, so the same stop does not come back next week.

  4. 04The queue

    Everything else that stopped, in one work queue

    Lorena Bautista · Medicaid claims coordinator

    The 167 sessions still stopped sit in 17 items, filtered by gate: enrolled 54, consent 27, IEP order 43, credential 5, note 38. Each item has its owner, its filing clock and the agent's proposed next step, such as "Coverage ended Sep 30" for 31 sessions of 9 students or "More sessions than the IEP orders" for 17. She can ask providers, hold or write off in bulk, each with a reason code.

  5. 05Any claim

    One claim, five proofs side by side

    Lorena Bautista · Medicaid claims coordinator

    She opens a claim that passed: Jordan M., grade 3, Harborview Elementary, speech-language therapy, Wednesday October 14, 9:30–10:00 a.m., with Marisol Duarte, CCC-SLP, $88. Enrolled October 1–31; consent signed September 22, 2024, and this year's notice delivered September 9, 2026; the IEP orders 2 × 30 minutes a week; the license is active to March 31, 2028; the note has 7 of 7 elements. Each proof opens its source.

  6. 06Her view

    The provider sees exactly what each note is missing

    Marisol Duarte, CCC-SLP · Speech-language pathologist

    Marisol has 58 students across two elementary schools. Her view lists 15 notes missing one thing each: 6 need her signature and 9 need the student's response, with her own trial counts beside them. She adds the response and signs one note, or six after review. Her view shows no Medicaid status and no dollar values, so billing never shapes a service decision.

    The Documentation agent never writes or signs a note. It asks the provider exactly what is missing.

  7. 07Consent

    Consent requests in the family's language

    Consent agent

    Nineteen sessions wait at the consent gate for three students with no consent to bill Medicaid on file. The Consent agent drafted each request from the IDEA consent elements: Spanish for Camila R. and Mateo G., Vietnamese for Bao N., each with the English beside it. Bao's 5 physical therapy sessions ($520) are held; the Vietnamese draft scores 0.93 translation confidence. Lorena approves, and the case manager, Peter Vo, co-signs and sends.

    Drafted by the Consent agent · approved by the coordinator · sent by the case manager. The sessions stay held until consent is signed.

  8. 08Recovery

    Sessions nobody billed, before the filing limit

    Recovery agent

    The Recovery agent searched late provider logs, the health office's nursing log and summer logs and found 214 eligible sessions never billed, worth $15,408. The oldest, Ava L.'s speech session of November 3, 2025, reaches the 12-month limit in 14 days, and 38 are within 30 days. Added to next week's batch, they still pass all five gates.

  9. 0911:20 a.m.

    The coordinator approves batch W42

    Lorena Bautista · Medicaid claims coordinator

    The batch shows each service at the state fee schedule, from speech-language individual (756 sessions, $66,528) to transportation (100 trips, $2,400), with the five gates' summary. The agents re-checked a 2% sample end to end from the source records, and 52 of 52 agree. Lorena attests to what she checked and approves 2,575 sessions, $186,240.

  10. 102:05 p.m.

    Released by a second person

    Kevin Ostrowski · Senior accountant, business office

    Kevin sees the approved batch and the rule that the person who approved it cannot release it. He releases it: the claim file is built (837P, 2,575 lines, 174 rendering providers), the state Medicaid billing portal accepts 2,575 of 2,575, and the ERP books the receivable. The remittance is expected about October 26.

    The approver never releases.

Who it’s for

Built for everyone who stands behind a school Medicaid claim.

The same week of sessions, seen by the people who claim it, deliver it, release it and audit it: what it looked like, and what it looks like now.

LB
Lorena BautistaMedicaid claims coordinator · Student Services, Marlow Bay Unified School District
Medicaid claims coordinator
Before
Cuts the weekly batch every Monday night, then spends the week chasing notes, consents and licenses through spreadsheets and email.
Now
Opens the five gates, sees what stopped each claim and the proof that clears it, and spends her time clearing, approving and answering the state.
KO
Kevin OstrowskiSenior accountant · Business office
Senior accountant
Before
Sees the money three weeks after a claim goes out, in a remittance he cannot tie to the sessions.
Now
Releases only batches someone else approved, sees why each dollar is there, and releases the corrections to last week's denials that the coordinator approved.
MD
Marisol Duarte, CCC-SLPRelated services provider · two elementary schools, 58 students
Speech-language pathologist
Before
Hears days later, by email, that a note is missing something, after the batch has gone.
Now
Sees each incomplete note with the one thing missing, fixes it the same day, and never sees Medicaid status or dollars.
CM
Dr. Celeste MoranDirector of special education · Marlow Bay Unified School District
Director of special education
Before
Owns the consent policy and the Medicaid revenue line, and worries whether each dollar will survive an audit five years from now.
Now
Sees consent requests go out in the family's language, this year's annual notices tracked (2,412 delivered, 2 returned) and every claim filed with its proofs.
AL
Arthur LindgrenInternal auditor · reads everything, changes nothing
Internal auditor
Before
Rebuilds each sampled claim's evidence from five systems when the state asks.
Now
Builds a sealed, redacted recoupment audit pack for a batch in minutes: one claim, five proofs, one click.
Built on the engine

8 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

An agent at each of five gates, each checked by another; the claims coordinator approves, the business office releases.

Eligibility agent

Matches each session's student to the state's monthly Medicaid enrollment file for the date of service, and runs the daily eligibility check for any session not matched.

  • Never edits a student record
  • A name or birth-date mismatch goes to the registrar
Consent agent

Finds the one-time written consent and this school year's notice, and drafts consent requests with the required elements in the home language, the English beside.

  • Never sends to a family: the coordinator approves and the case manager sends
  • Below 0.90 translation confidence it asks for an interpreter
Order agent

Matches each session to the IEP's service, frequency, duration and dates, and checks the signed prescription for occupational and physical therapy.

  • Never changes an IEP
  • Over-frequency goes to the provider
Credential agent

Checks each provider's license, certification and supervision against the date of service in the HR record, and finds renewals in the HR file and on the state license lookup.

  • Never updates HR
  • Proposes a clear with its citation; a person clears it
Documentation agent

Checks each session note against the state's seven required elements: date, start and end time, service and code, individual or group size, the student's response, and the provider's signature and credential.

  • Never writes or signs a note
  • Asks the provider exactly what is missing
Recovery agent

Searches late provider logs, the health office's nursing log and summer sessions for eligible sessions never billed, sorted by days left to the 12-month filing limit.

  • Recovered sessions still pass all five gates
Time study agent

Sends and reminds random moment time study moments, and checks each answer has enough detail to be coded.

  • Never answers or codes a moment
Audit pack agent

Builds the recoupment audit pack for a batch: five proofs per claim, both approvals, the agents' versions and the access log, then redacts other students and seals it.

  • Packs only the scope asked for
  • Every pack is logged
Claims coordinator and business office

Approve and release. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any session, gate, provider, student or batch

Ask in plain words, or say what to follow up. Every answer points to the record or rule it rests on, and opens the screen where you can act.

Why did 46 sessions stop at the credential gate?

HR shows Hannah Kepler's state OT license expiring Sep 30, 2026, so her 46 sessions after that date stopped. Her HR file holds the renewal certificate, dated Sep 28, valid to Sep 30, 2028, and the state lookup shows her license active. Clearing them adds $4,692.

Which unbilled sessions are closest to the filing limit?

The Recovery agent found 214 eligible sessions never billed ($15,408). The closest are Ava L.'s speech session of Nov 3, 2025 (14 days left), Diego M.'s nursing session of Nov 5, 2025 (16) and Hazel B.'s speech session of Nov 10, 2025 (21). 38 are within 30 days. Added to next week's batch, they still pass all five gates.

Is consent on file for Bao N.?

No. Bao N.'s Medicaid began on Oct 1, and there is no one-time consent in the IEP system. IDEA requires it before the first claim. The Consent agent drafted the request in Vietnamese with the English beside it, at 0.93 translation confidence. You approve it, and Peter Vo, his case manager, sends it. His 5 physical therapy sessions ($520) are held until then.

Build the audit pack for batch W42

Building it now: each claim with its enrollment proof, consent and this year's notice, IEP order and prescription, the provider's credential on the date, the signed note, both approvals, the agents' versions and the access log. Other students' names are redacted. Every pack is logged.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

This week's claim, gate by gateThe five-gate claim checkpoint for one district's week of school based Medicaid billing: every therapy and nursing session moves through enrollment, parental consent, IEP order, provider credential and session note, with an agent at each gate.
The agent finds the proof that clears a stopAt the credential gate, the Credential agent shows its steps and sources: HR says the occupational therapist's license expired, and the renewal certificate is already in her HR file, confirmed on the state license lookup.
A person clears it, and the claim growsAfter the coordinator clears the 46 sessions with the certificate cited, ready to bill rises to 2,575 sessions and $186,240, and HR gets a task to fix the source record.
Every stop in one work queueEverything the five gates stopped, grouped by reason and owner, with the agent's proposed next step, the filing clock and bulk actions with reason codes.
One claim, five proofs side by sideA single Medicaid claim file: the session and its five proofs, each cited to its source record and checked by a second agent.
Providers see exactly what each note is missingThe speech-language pathologist's own view: each incomplete note with the one thing missing, her trial counts beside it, and no Medicaid status or dollar values.
IDEA parental consent in the family's languageThe parental consent request to bill Medicaid, drafted by the Consent agent in Vietnamese with the English beside it, approved by the coordinator and sent by the case manager.
Sessions nobody billed, found before the Medicaid timely filing limitThe Recovery agent's search for eligible school based Medicaid services never billed, sorted by days left to the 12-month filing limit.
The weekly batch, approved by the coordinatorBatch W42 by service at the state fee schedule, with the five gates, the 2% sample re-check (52 of 52 agree) and the coordinator's approval.
Released by a second personThe business office's view: the accountant releases the approved batch to the state Medicaid billing portal; the person who approved it can never release it.
Last week's denials, traced and correctedThe prior batch's remittance: 31 denied lines by reason, why each happened, the agents' 17 proposed corrections and the gate that now stops them, with a designed error state for the remittance feed.
The random moment time study, kept completeThe quarter's random moment time study for Medicaid administrative claiming: 92.8% answered against the state's 85% rule, open and overdue moments, and answers returned for codable detail.
A recoupment audit pack in minutesThe audit trail of every person's and agent's action with its evidence, and the recoupment audit pack for the batch: 2,575 claim files, built, redacted and sealed.
Governance

Built for school based Medicaid billing that survives an audit: cited, approved by two people, on the record.

Agents check, find and draft; people decideAgents never clear a stop, approve, send to a family, release a batch, edit a note or change a record in HR, the IEP system or the student information system. "Agents may clear a stop on their own" is a setting that is always off.
A second agent checks every passEvery gate's passes are re-checked by a second agent from a different record: the Order agent re-reads the minutes the Documentation agent accepted, the Consent agent confirms the student the Eligibility agent matched. Disagreements go to the coordinator, never resolved by an agent.
The approver never releasesThe coordinator approves a batch and the business office releases it; the same person cannot do both. Consent requests are approved by the coordinator and sent by the case manager, and corrected claims are approved by the coordinator and released by the business office.
Every claim is an audit file from the day it is madeEach claim keeps its five proofs, both approvals and the agents' versions. Every clear, hold and write-off needs a reason code, every action is on the audit trail with who, what, when, why and the evidence, and every view of a claim file is logged.
FERPA and IDEA access, by roleBilling staff see the fields a claim needs, not evaluations or IEP narratives. Providers see their own caseload and no dollars; the business office sees totals and claim lines. The state gets only what the consent names, exports redact other students, and claim records are kept 6 years, then destroyed with a log entry.
Versioned agents, thresholds and reason codesEach agent's prompt and model are versioned, each has a confidence threshold below which it does not propose, and every human override carries a reason code such as "Proof found in another record" or "Family withdrew consent". Role changes need a second administrator.
Configuration

Your state's rules and your district's clocks

The rules and clocks every session is checked against are settings, changed by the systems administrator, and every change makes a new version on the audit trail.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Cut the weekly batchMonday, 11:00 p.m.Monday 11:00 p.m., Friday 6:00 p.m. or every two weeks; the five gates run right after the cut
Sample re-check before approval2% of the batchA percentage drawn at random and re-checked end to end from the source records
Warn before the 12-month filing limit30 days beforeAny number of days, with warnings also at 60 and 14 days (42 CFR 447.45(d))
Note fixes due5 school daysSchool days from the Documentation agent's ask
Follow up an unsigned consent request10 school daysSchool days, then the case manager calls the family
Remind a time study participant24 hours afterHours after the moment is sent; moments are due in 2 business days under the state rule
Propose only above0.95 for most agents0.85, 0.90, 0.95 or 1.00, per agent
Keep claim records6 years6, 7 or 10 years after the claim is paid, then destroyed with a log entry
Connections

Works with the systems a district already runs

IEP systemservices, frequency, duration and consent records, read nightly and on change
Provider service log and health office logtherapy and nursing sessions and their notes
HR systemlicenses, certifications and supervision, read nightly; never updated by an agent
State Medicaid enrollment file and eligibility checkthe monthly enrollment file and the daily eligibility check
State Medicaid billing portalclaim files on release, and remittances back
ERP and student information systemreceivables booked on release; names, birth dates and home language
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
100%
of claims released with all five proofs attached
Five proofs per claim
enrollment, consent, order, license, note
target
99%+
of eligible sessions billed within the 12-month filing limit
By spreadsheetunknown
With agents214 found in the demo district
target
1day
from the weekly cut to an approved batch, not a week
By handWith agents

“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample district data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (HHS Office of Inspector General audits of state school-based Medicaid programs: September 2026, an estimated $454.9 million that may have been improperly claimed; 2024, $551.4 million improperly claimed). Rule context: IDEA, 34 CFR 300.154(d) and 300.622; FERPA, 34 CFR Part 99; 42 CFR 447.45(d) on the 12-month filing limit. The district, schools, students, families and people named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What special education and business office leaders ask us.

What is School-Based Medicaid Billing & Claiming?

School-Based Medicaid Billing & Claiming checks every therapy and nursing session before a district bills Medicaid, so school based Medicaid billing leaves with five proofs per claim. Agents check enrollment, IDEA parental consent and this year's notice, the IEP order, the provider's credential and the session note, find the proof that clears a stop, and find eligible sessions nobody billed before the 12-month filing limit. The Medicaid claims coordinator approves each weekly batch, and the business office releases it.

How do schools bill Medicaid with it?

Providers log sessions as they do today. After the weekly cut, five agents check each session at five gates, and a second agent re-checks every pass from a different record. The coordinator clears or holds what stopped, approves the batch after a 2% sample re-check, and the business office releases the claim file to the state Medicaid billing portal.

Does it handle parental consent to bill Medicaid under IDEA?

Yes. The Consent agent looks for the one-time written consent and this school year's notice that 34 CFR 300.154(d) requires. Where consent is missing, it drafts the request in the family's home language with the English beside it; the coordinator approves and the case manager sends. Those sessions stay held until consent is signed.

Can it find sessions we never billed before the Medicaid timely filing limit?

Yes. The Recovery agent searches late provider logs, the health office's nursing log and summer sessions and sorts what it finds by days left to the 12-month limit. In the sample district it found 214 eligible sessions worth $15,408, 38 of them within 30 days. Recovered sessions still pass all five gates.

Does it support the random moment time study?

Yes. The Time study agent sends and reminds moments, tracks the response rate against the state's rule and returns answers such as "Worked with students." to the participant for codable detail. It never answers or codes a moment; the state's coders do.

What happens in a Medicaid recoupment audit?

Every claim already carries its five proofs, both approvals, the agents' versions and the access log. The Audit pack agent builds the pack for a batch, redacts other students and seals it, and every pack is logged. The auditor can read everything and change nothing.

Do people stay in control?

Yes. Agents check, find and draft; people decide. The provider signs the note, the coordinator clears every stop with a reason code and approves consent drafts and batches, the case manager sends consent requests, and the business office releases. The person who approves a batch cannot release it.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents: your state's school-based services manual and fee schedule, your consent forms and a sample of past sessions and IEP orders. It goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own records first.

See it on
your district's sessions.

We'll run School-Based Medicaid Billing & Claiming on a sample of your own past sessions, IEP orders and your state's billing rules.