If you are eligible for Medicaid or are assigned to one of the Provider-Led Arkansas Shared Service Entities (PASSE), Disability Rights Arkansas can help you understand your rights and get access to the services for which you qualify.
- We monitor progress of PASSE implementation to make sure you get the person-centered services and resources you need to live in the community.
- We make sure that people with disabilities know what services are available under Medicaid and its various programs.
- We assist individuals with appeals of ineligibility and adverse actions to the PASSE regarding services.
- We help children with disabilities get access to services through the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) mandate.
- We assist Medicaid recipients with accessing assistive technology to advance independent living.
- We pursue a system of comprehensive services for individuals who have experienced a traumatic brain injury.
What is a PASSE?
PASSE stands for Provider-Led Shared Savings Entity. A PASSE is a private agency that is in charge of organizing services and care for people who need it. PASSEs serve Medicaid clients with complex behavioral health, developmental, or intellectual disabilities.
There are four PASSEs currently operating in Arkansas. Learn more about them here:
How do you file an appeal of a PASSE decision?
You have the right to challenge any decisions that a PASSE makes about your care. Each PASSE has their own appeals process. Check out our blog post about how to file an appeal with a PASSE here.
Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT)
Children are one of the populations that benefit most from Medicaid services. Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) is a Medicaid benefit designed to increase the duration and scope of treatment provided to children. In doing so, EPSDT requires states to provide nearly any “medically necessary” service to children.
From Medicaid.gov: The EPSDT benefit is more robust than the Medicaid benefit for adults and is designed to assure that children receive early detection and care, so that health problems are averted or diagnosed and treated as early as possible. The goal of EPSDT is to assure that individual children get the health care they need when they need it – the right care to the right child at the right time in the right setting.
Learn more about this very important Medicaid benefit for children here.