The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board formally approved a new contract with Community Health to provide mental health services to students in the local school system.

Assistant Superintendent Mike Beresford told the board “this is a great moment in history for Hamilton Southeastern Schools.”  He talked about all the work that has gone into the agreement that will provide mental health services for every school building in the HSE district.

The school district will pay $400,000 to Community to provide the services.  Community will utilize Medicaid or private health insurance to pay for the cost of services to individual students.  If the Medicaid and/or private insurance is not available, the costs will be covered under the contract provisions.

Board member Matt Burke pressed administrators for where the bright line rule exists for payment of services.  He is concerned that parents may be billed and subject to collection actions if Medicaid or private insurance does not pay for the mental health services.

School attorney David Day pointed to language in the contract referring to “third party payers,” which should preclude individual families from liabilities, but also said the issue needs to be clarified with Community Health.

Beresford told board members the agreement is an “act of faith” on the part of the school corporation and Community Health, so the first year of the program will be a better indicator of how it is working financially for both parties..

School Superintendent Allen Bourff says this needs to be marketed as the program rolls out.  Bourff plans to invite Community Health representatives to a future school board meeting to talk about the services they plan to provide, the fees, structure and access to services for the students.

At this time this story was posted, the school corporation has not made a copy of the contract available online.