Arkansas Code
Subchapter 7 - Arkansas System of Care for Behavioral Healthcare Services for Children and Youth Act
§ 20-47-705. Behavioral healthcare initiatives

The Department of Human Services, with advice from the Children's Behavioral Health Care Commission, shall:
(1) Identify and implement actions for ensuring that children, youth, and their families are full partners in the design and implementation of all aspects of the system of care as well as full partners in decisions about their care or their children's care;
(2) Identify up to two million dollars ($2,000,000) per year to apply to the following purposes:
(A) Meeting extraordinary, non-Medicaid-reimbursable needs of children, youth, and their families, as identified in multiagency plans of services;
(B) Supporting creation or strengthening of entities designed to guide the development and operation of local, regional, and state components of the system of care;
(C) Strengthening family and advocate skills and capacity to provide meaningful input on the system of care; and
(D) Supporting the development and enhancement of needed behavioral healthcare services in underserved areas;

(3) Revise Medicaid rules to increase quality, accountability, and appropriateness of Medicaid-reimbursed behavioral healthcare services, including, but not limited to:
(A) Clarifying behavioral healthcare services definitions to assure that the definitions are appropriate to the needs of children, youth, and their families;
(B) Revising the process for Medicaid to receive, review, and act upon requests for behavioral health care for children and youth classified as seriously emotionally disturbed;
(C) Clarifying Medicaid certification rules for providers serving children, youth, and their families to assure that the certification rules correlate with the requirements for enrollment as a Medicaid provider of behavioral healthcare services;
(D)
(i) Defining a standardized screening and assessment process designed to provide early identification of conditions that require behavioral healthcare services.
(ii) The standardized process shall ensure that:
(a) Assessments guide service decisions, outcomes, and, if appropriate, development of a multiagency plan of services; and
(b) Services delivered are appropriate to meet the needs of the child as identified by the assessment;

(4) Research, identify, and implement innovative and promising local, regional, or statewide approaches for better managing the state's resources devoted to children's behavioral health; and
(5) Create additional capacity within the Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services of the Department of Human Services to develop, support, and oversee the new system of care for behavioral healthcare services for children, including:
(A)
(i) Selecting a new outcomes measurement tool to support an improved system of tracking, accountability, and decision-making.
(ii) The new outcomes measurement tool shall be selected no later than September 30, 2015, and shall replace the current outcomes measurement tool for purposes of reporting required in § 20-47-510; and

(B) Creating additional staff support to provide technical assistance, utilize information, identify and encourage best practices, monitor performance, and recommend system improvements.