California will use Medicaid funding to help pay for coronavirus testing of low-income students, after receiving the OK from President Joe Biden’s administration, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Wednesday morning, March 3.
The announcement comes as Newsom, who will tour a Long Beach vaccination site Wednesday afternoon, continues pushing to assist schools across the state reopen safely. Newsom and the state Legislature recently struck a deal to provide $6.6 billion to do so, money that will support efforts to expande academic, mental health and social assistance for students; provide personal protective equipment; and COVID-19 testing.
The Biden administration’s approval will let the state use is Medicaid funding — called Medi-Cal here — funding to provide COVID-19 testing to students covered under the low-income healthcare program. Students from transitional kindergarten to 12th grade will be eligible.
Medi‐Cal, according to the governor’s press release, is the primary health care system for more than half of the state’s population under 20 years old and provides coverage to 50-to-55% of school-aged children in the state.
“I am grateful to our federal partners for approving our request to expand testing for low-income students,” Newsom said in a written statement, “to ensure schools can reopen safely in underserved neighborhoods that are bearing the brunt of pandemic hardships.
“Our top priority,” he added, “is getting students back in the classroom to not only meet their learning needs, but also their mental health and social-emotional needs.”
The California Department of Health Care Services had requested permission to provide COVID-19 testing in schools for Medi-Cal children in December. The request to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was approved retroactively to Feb. 1 and will continue for 60 days after the end of the federal public health emergency.
The state and federal governments will now bear much of the costs for schools electing to implement COVID-19 testing as an additional precaution – especially in communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
“As a pediatrician and father,” California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a statement, “I know schools are a vital place for our kids where in-person learning has a positive impact on their overall health and well-being.
“Further leveraging our state Medicaid program to increase access to testing,” he added, “will not only help us to reopen schools, but also ensure that testing becomes even more accessible for underserved students.”
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