School districts qualify for enrollment in the Arkansas Medicaid Personal Care Program for reimbursement of primarily “hands‐on” assistance by a personal care paraprofessional: bathing, bladder and bowel requirements, dressing, eating, personal hygiene, mobility and ambulation, medication administration. 

Personal care services provide hands-on assistance to children with physical dependency needs.  Personal care services must be medically necessary, and in order to bill for personal care, students must have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that includes "Personal Care" as a related service in accordance with IDEA.  All personal care services must be supervised by a registered nurse.

Personal Care Training and Certification

School personnel providing billable Personal Care Services must be trained and certified by the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).  All Certified Personal Care Aides must have a job-assignment code of 761 in eFinance.

Personal Care Prior Authorization

Prior to Medicaid claiming for a student, the district’s registered nurse must obtain prior authorization via the DMS-618 Medicaid form, annually.  For prior authorization, the completed DMS-618 must be submitted to eQHealth Solutions for approval of personal care services.  Schools must submit the form via the eQSuites portal when entering a “New Request” as well as a “Personal Care Renewal”.  See the eQHealth Personal Care User Guide and eQHealth Under 21 PowerPoint Training in Related Files on this page for more details on how to enter the request and navigate the eQSuites dashboard.”

For more information, please contact: