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Chapter 256B

Section 256B.0943

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256B.0943 Children's therapeutic services and supports.

Subdivision 1. Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following terms have the meanings given them.

(a) "Children's therapeutic services and supports" means the flexible package of mental health services for children who require varying therapeutic and rehabilitative levels of intervention. The services are time-limited interventions that are delivered using various treatment modalities and combinations of services designed to reach treatment outcomes identified in the individual treatment plan.

(b) "Clinical supervision" means the overall responsibility of the mental health professional for the control and direction of individualized treatment planning, service delivery, and treatment review for each client. A mental health professional who is an enrolled Minnesota health care program provider accepts full professional responsibility for a supervisee's actions and decisions, instructs the supervisee in the supervisee's work, and oversees or directs the supervisee's work.

(c) "County board" means the county board of commissioners or board established under sections 402.01 to 402.10 or 471.59.

(d) "Crisis assistance" has the meaning given in section 245.4871, subdivision 9a.

(e) "Culturally competent provider" means a provider who understands and can utilize to a client's benefit the client's culture when providing services to the client. A provider may be culturally competent because the provider is of the same cultural or ethnic group as the client or the provider has developed the knowledge and skills through training and experience to provide services to culturally diverse clients.

(f) "Day treatment program" for children means a site-based structured program consisting of group psychotherapy for more than three individuals and other intensive therapeutic services provided by a multidisciplinary team, under the clinical supervision of a mental health professional.

(g) "Diagnostic assessment" has the meaning given in section 245.4871, subdivision 11.

(h) "Direct service time" means the time that a mental health professional, mental health practitioner, or mental health behavioral aide spends face-to-face with a client and the client's family. Direct service time includes time in which the provider obtains a client's history or provides service components of children's therapeutic services and supports. Direct service time does not include time doing work before and after providing direct services, including scheduling, maintaining clinical records, consulting with others about the client's mental health status, preparing reports, receiving clinical supervision directly related to the client's psychotherapy session, and revising the client's individual treatment plan.

(i) "Direction of mental health behavioral aide" means the activities of a mental health professional or mental health practitioner in guiding the mental health behavioral aide in providing services to a client. The direction of a mental health behavioral aide must be based on the client's individualized treatment plan and meet the requirements in subdivision 6, paragraph (b), clause (5).

(j) "Emotional disturbance" has the meaning given in section 245.4871, subdivision 15. For persons at least age 18 but under age 21, mental illness has the meaning given in section 245.462, subdivision 20, paragraph (a).

(k) "Individual behavioral plan" means a plan of intervention, treatment, and services for a child written by a mental health professional or mental health practitioner, under the clinical supervision of a mental health professional, to guide the work of the mental health behavioral aide.

(l) "Individual treatment plan" has the meaning given in section 245.4871, subdivision 21.

(m) "Mental health professional" means an individual as defined in section 245.4871, subdivision 27, clauses (1) to (5), or tribal vendor as defined in section 256B.02, subdivision 7, paragraph (b).

(n) "Preschool program" means a day program licensed under Minnesota Rules, parts 9503.0005 to 9503.0175, and enrolled as a children's therapeutic services and supports provider to provide a structured treatment program to a child who is at least 33 months old but who has not yet attended the first day of kindergarten.

(o) "Skills training" means individual, family, or group training designed to improve the basic functioning of the child with emotional disturbance and the child's family in the activities of daily living and community living, and to improve the social functioning of the child and the child's family in areas important to the child's maintaining or reestablishing residency in the community. Individual, family, and group skills training must:

(1) consist of activities designed to promote skill development of the child and the child's family in the use of age-appropriate daily living skills, interpersonal and family relationships, and leisure and recreational services;

(2) consist of activities that will assist the family's understanding of normal child development and to use parenting skills that will help the child with emotional disturbance achieve the goals outlined in the child's individual treatment plan; and

(3) promote family preservation and unification, promote the family's integration with the community, and reduce the use of unnecessary out-of-home placement or institutionalization of children with emotional disturbance.

Subd. 2. Covered service components of children's therapeutic services and supports. (a) Subject to federal approval, medical assistance covers medically necessary children's therapeutic services and supports as defined in this section that an eligible provider entity under subdivisions 4 and 5 provides to a client eligible under subdivision 3.

(b) The service components of children's therapeutic services and supports are:

(1) individual, family, and group psychotherapy;

(2) individual, family, or group skills training provided by a mental health professional or mental health practitioner;

(3) crisis assistance;

(4) mental health behavioral aide services; and

(5) direction of a mental health behavioral aide.

(c) Service components may be combined to constitute therapeutic programs, including day treatment programs and preschool programs. Although day treatment and preschool programs have specific client and provider eligibility requirements, medical assistance only pays for the service components listed in paragraph (b).

Subd. 3. Determination of client eligibility. A client's eligibility to receive children's therapeutic services and supports under this section shall be determined based on a diagnostic assessment by a mental health professional that is performed within 180 days of the initial start of service. The diagnostic assessment must:

(1) include current diagnoses on all five axes of the client's current mental health status;

(2) determine whether a child under age 18 has a diagnosis of emotional disturbance or, if the person is between the ages of 18 and 21, whether the person has a mental illness;

(3) document children's therapeutic services and supports as medically necessary to address an identified disability, functional impairment, and the individual client's needs and goals;

(4) be used in the development of the individualized treatment plan; and

(5) be completed annually until age 18. For individuals between age 18 and 21, unless a client's mental health condition has changed markedly since the client's most recent diagnostic assessment, annual updating is necessary. For the purpose of this section, "updating" means a written summary, including current diagnoses on all five axes, by a mental health professional of the client's current mental health status and service needs.

Subd. 4. Provider entity certification. (a) Effective July 1, 2003, the commissioner shall establish an initial provider entity application and certification process and recertification process to determine whether a provider entity has an administrative and clinical infrastructure that meets the requirements in subdivisions 5 and 6. The commissioner shall recertify a provider entity at least every three years. The commissioner shall establish a process for decertification of a provider entity that no longer meets the requirements in this section. The county, tribe, and the commissioner shall be mutually responsible and accountable for the county's, tribe's, and state's part of the certification, recertification, and decertification processes.

(b) For purposes of this section, a provider entity must be:

(1) an Indian health services facility or a facility owned and operated by a tribe or tribal organization operating as a 638 facility under Public Law 93-638 certified by the state;

(2) a county-operated entity certified by the state; or

(3) a noncounty entity recommended for certification by the provider's host county and certified by the state.

Subd. 5. Provider entity administrative infrastructure requirements. (a) To be an eligible provider entity under this section, a provider entity must have an administrative infrastructure that establishes authority and accountability for decision making and oversight of functions, including finance, personnel, system management, clinical practice, and performance measurement. The provider must have written policies and procedures that it reviews and updates every three years and distributes to staff initially and upon each subsequent update.

(b) The administrative infrastructure written policies and procedures must include:

(1) personnel procedures, including a process for: (i) recruiting, hiring, training, and retention of culturally and linguistically competent providers; (ii) conducting a criminal background check on all direct service providers and volunteers; (iii) investigating, reporting, and acting on violations of ethical conduct standards; (iv) investigating, reporting, and acting on violations of data privacy policies that are compliant with federal and state laws; (v) utilizing volunteers, including screening applicants, training and supervising volunteers, and providing liability coverage for volunteers; and (vi) documenting that each mental health professional, mental health practitioner, or mental health behavioral aide meets the applicable provider qualification criteria, training criteria under subdivision 8, and clinical supervision or direction of a mental health behavioral aide requirements under subdivision 6;

(2) fiscal procedures, including internal fiscal control practices and a process for collecting revenue that is compliant with federal and state laws;

(3) if a client is receiving services from a case manager or other provider entity, a service coordination process that ensures services are provided in the most appropriate manner to achieve maximum benefit to the client. The provider entity must ensure coordination and nonduplication of services consistent with county board coordination procedures established under section 245.4881, subdivision 5;

(4) a performance measurement system, including monitoring to determine cultural appropriateness of services identified in the individual treatment plan, as determined by the client's culture, beliefs, values, and language, and family-driven services; and

(5) a process to establish and maintain individual client records. The client's records must include:

(i) the client's personal information;

(ii) forms applicable to data privacy;

(iii) the client's diagnostic assessment, updates, results of tests, individual treatment plan, and individual behavior plan, if necessary;

(iv) documentation of service delivery as specified under subdivision 6;

(v) telephone contacts;

(vi) discharge plan; and

(vii) if applicable, insurance information.

Subd. 6. Provider entity clinical infrastructure requirements. (a) To be an eligible provider entity under this section, a provider entity must have a clinical infrastructure that utilizes diagnostic assessment, an individualized treatment plan, service delivery, and individual treatment plan review that are culturally competent, child-centered, and family-driven to achieve maximum benefit for the client. The provider entity must review and update the clinical policies and procedures every three years and must distribute the policies and procedures to staff initially and upon each subsequent update.

(b) The clinical infrastructure written policies and procedures must include policies and procedures for:

(1) providing or obtaining a client's diagnostic assessment that identifies acute and chronic clinical disorders, co-occurring medical conditions, sources of psychological and environmental problems, and a functional assessment. The functional assessment must clearly summarize the client's individual strengths and needs;

(2) developing an individual treatment plan that is:

(i) based on the information in the client's diagnostic assessment;

(ii) developed no later than the end of the first psychotherapy session after the completion of the client's diagnostic assessment by the mental health professional who provides the client's psychotherapy;

(iii) developed through a child-centered, family-driven planning process that identifies service needs and individualized, planned, and culturally appropriate interventions that contain specific treatment goals and objectives for the client and the client's family or foster family;

(iv) reviewed at least once every 90 days and revised, if necessary; and

(v) signed by the client or, if appropriate, by the client's parent or other person authorized by statute to consent to mental health services for the client;

(3) developing an individual behavior plan that documents services to be provided by the mental health behavioral aide. The individual behavior plan must include:

(i) detailed instructions on the service to be provided;

(ii) time allocated to each service;

(iii) methods of documenting the child's behavior;

(iv) methods of monitoring the child's progress in reaching objectives; and

(v) goals to increase or decrease targeted behavior as identified in the individual treatment plan;

(4) clinical supervision of the mental health practitioner and mental health behavioral aide. A mental health professional must document the clinical supervision the professional provides by cosigning individual treatment plans and making entries in the client's record on supervisory activities. Clinical supervision does not include the authority to make or terminate court-ordered placements of the child. A clinical supervisor must be available for urgent consultation as required by the individual client's needs or the situation. Clinical supervision may occur individually or in a small group to discuss treatment and review progress toward goals. The focus of clinical supervision must be the client's treatment needs and progress and the mental health practitioner's or behavioral aide's ability to provide services;

(5) providing direction to a mental health behavioral aide. For entities that employ mental health behavioral aides, the clinical supervisor must be employed by the provider entity to ensure necessary and appropriate oversight for the client's treatment and continuity of care. The mental health professional or mental health practitioner giving direction must begin with the goals on the individualized treatment plan, and instruct the mental health behavioral aide on how to construct therapeutic activities and interventions that will lead to goal attainment. The professional or practitioner giving direction must also instruct the mental health behavioral aide about the client's diagnosis, functional status, and other characteristics that are likely to affect service delivery. Direction must also include determining that the mental health behavioral aide has the skills to interact with the client and the client's family in ways that convey personal and cultural respect and that the aide actively solicits information relevant to treatment from the family. The aide must be able to clearly explain the activities the aide is doing with the client and the activities' relationship to treatment goals. Direction is more didactic than is supervision and requires the professional or practitioner providing it to continuously evaluate the mental health behavioral aide's ability to carry out the activities of the individualized treatment plan and the individualized behavior plan. When providing direction, the professional or practitioner must:

(i) review progress notes prepared by the mental health behavioral aide for accuracy and consistency with diagnostic assessment, treatment plan, and behavior goals and the professional or practitioner must approve and sign the progress notes;

(ii) identify changes in treatment strategies, revise the individual behavior plan, and communicate treatment instructions and methodologies as appropriate to ensure that treatment is implemented correctly;

(iii) demonstrate family-friendly behaviors that support healthy collaboration among the child, the child's family, and providers as treatment is planned and implemented;

(iv) ensure that the mental health behavioral aide is able to effectively communicate with the child, the child's family, and the provider; and

(v) record the results of any evaluation and corrective actions taken to modify the work of the mental health behavioral aide;

(6) providing service delivery that implements the individual treatment plan and meets the requirements under subdivision 9; and

(7) individual treatment plan review. The review must determine the extent to which the services have met the goals and objectives in the previous treatment plan. The review must assess the client's progress and ensure that services and treatment goals continue to be necessary and appropriate to the client and the client's family or foster family. Revision of the individual treatment plan does not require a new diagnostic assessment unless the client's mental health status has changed markedly. The updated treatment plan must be signed by the client, if appropriate, and by the client's parent or other person authorized by statute to give consent to the mental health services for the child.

Subd. 7. Qualifications of individual and team providers. (a) An individual or team provider working within the scope of the provider's practice or qualifications may provide service components of children's therapeutic services and supports that are identified as medically necessary in a client's individual treatment plan.

(b) An individual provider must be qualified as:

(1) a mental health professional as defined in subdivision 1, paragraph (m); or

(2) a mental health practitioner as defined in section 245.4871, subdivision 26. The mental health practitioner must work under the clinical supervision of a mental health professional; or

(3) a mental health behavioral aide working under the direction of a mental health professional to implement the rehabilitative mental health services identified in the client's individual treatment plan.

(A) A level I mental health behavioral aide must:

(i) be at least 18 years old;

(ii) have a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma (GED) or two years of experience as a primary caregiver to a child with severe emotional disturbance within the previous ten years; and

(iii) meet preservice and continuing education requirements under subdivision 8.

(B) A level II mental health behavioral aide must:

(i) be at least 18 years old;

(ii) have an associate or bachelor's degree or 4,000 hours of experience in delivering clinical services in the treatment of mental illness concerning children or adolescents; and

(iii) meet preservice and continuing education requirements in subdivision 8.

(c) A preschool program multidisciplinary team must include at least one mental health professional and one or more of the following individuals under the clinical supervision of a mental health professional:

(i) a mental health practitioner; or

(ii) a program person, including a teacher, assistant teacher, or aide, who meets the qualifications and training standards of a level I mental health behavioral aide.

(d) A day treatment multidisciplinary team must include at least one mental health professional and one mental health practitioner.

Subd. 8. Required preservice and continuing education. (a) A provider entity shall establish a plan to provide preservice and continuing education for staff. The plan must clearly describe the type of training necessary to maintain current skills and obtain new skills and that relates to the provider entity's goals and objectives for services offered.

(b) A provider that employs a mental health behavioral aide under this section must require the mental health behavioral aide to complete 30 hours of preservice training. The preservice training must include topics specified in Minnesota Rules, part 9535.4068, subparts 1 and 2, and parent team training. The preservice training must include 15 hours of in-person training of a mental health behavioral aide in mental health services delivery and eight hours of parent team training. Components of parent team training include:

(1) partnering with parents;

(2) fundamentals of family support;

(3) fundamentals of policy and decision making;

(4) defining equal partnership;

(5) complexities of the parent and service provider partnership in multiple service delivery systems due to system strengths and weaknesses;

(6) sibling impacts;

(7) support networks; and

(8) community resources.

(c) A provider entity that employs a mental health practitioner and a mental health behavioral aide to provide children's therapeutic services and supports under this section must require the mental health practitioner and mental health behavioral aide to complete 20 hours of continuing education every two calendar years. The continuing education must be related to serving the needs of a child with emotional disturbance in the child's home environment and the child's family. The topics covered in orientation and training must conform to Minnesota Rules, part 9535.4068.

(d) The provider entity must document the mental health practitioner's or mental health behavioral aide's annual completion of the required continuing education. The documentation must include the date, subject, and number of hours of the continuing education, and attendance records, as verified by the staff member's signature, job title, and the instructor's name. The provider entity must keep documentation for each employee, including records of attendance at professional workshops and conferences, at a central location and in the employee's personnel file.

Subd. 9. Service delivery criteria. (a) In delivering services under this section, a certified provider entity must ensure that:

(1) each individual provider's caseload size permits the provider to deliver services to both clients with severe, complex needs and clients with less intensive needs. The provider's caseload size should reasonably enable the provider to play an active role in service planning, monitoring, and delivering services to meet the client's and client's family's needs, as specified in each client's individual treatment plan;

(2) site-based programs, including day treatment and preschool programs, provide staffing and facilities to ensure the client's health, safety, and protection of rights, and that the programs are able to implement each client's individual treatment plan;

(3) a day treatment program is provided to a group of clients by a multidisciplinary team under the clinical supervision of a mental health professional. The day treatment program must be provided in and by: (i) an outpatient hospital accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations and licensed under sections 144.50 to 144.55; (ii) a community mental health center under section 245.62; and (iii) an entity that is under contract with the county board to operate a program that meets the requirements of sections 245.4712, subdivision 2, and 245.4884, subdivision 2, and Minnesota Rules, parts 9505.0170 to 9505.0475. The day treatment program must stabilize the client's mental health status while developing and improving the client's independent living and socialization skills. The goal of the day treatment program must be to reduce or relieve the effects of mental illness and provide training to enable the client to live in the community. The program must be available at least one day a week for a minimum three-hour time block. The three-hour time block must include at least one hour, but no more than two hours, of individual or group psychotherapy. The remainder of the three-hour time block may include recreation therapy, socialization therapy, or independent living skills therapy, but only if the therapies are included in the client's individual treatment plan. Day treatment programs are not part of inpatient or residential treatment services; and

(4) a preschool program is a structured treatment program offered to a child who is at least 33 months old, but who has not yet reached the first day of kindergarten, by a preschool multidisciplinary team in a day program licensed under Minnesota Rules, parts 9503.0005 to 9503.0175. The program must be available at least one day a week for a minimum two-hour time block. The structured treatment program may include individual or group psychotherapy and recreation therapy, socialization therapy, or independent living skills therapy, if included in the client's individual treatment plan.

(b) A provider entity must deliver the service components of children's therapeutic services and supports in compliance with the following requirements:

(1) individual, family, and group psychotherapy must be delivered as specified in Minnesota Rules, part 9505.0323;

(2) individual, family, or group skills training must be provided by a mental health professional or a mental health practitioner who has a consulting relationship with a mental health professional who accepts full professional responsibility for the training;

(3) crisis assistance must be time-limited and designed to resolve or stabilize crisis through arrangements for direct intervention and support services to the child and the child's family. Crisis assistance must utilize resources designed to address abrupt or substantial changes in the functioning of the child or the child's family as evidenced by a sudden change in behavior with negative consequences for well being, a loss of usual coping mechanisms, or the presentation of danger to self or others;

(4) medically necessary services that are provided by a mental health behavioral aide must be designed to improve the functioning of the child and support the family in activities of daily and community living. A mental health behavioral aide must document the delivery of services in written progress notes. The mental health behavioral aide must implement goals in the treatment plan for the child's emotional disturbance that allow the child to acquire developmentally and therapeutically appropriate daily living skills, social skills, and leisure and recreational skills through targeted activities. These activities may include:

(i) assisting a child as needed with skills development in dressing, eating, and toileting;

(ii) assisting, monitoring, and guiding the child to complete tasks, including facilitating the child's participation in medical appointments;

(iii) observing the child and intervening to redirect the child's inappropriate behavior;

(iv) assisting the child in using age-appropriate self-management skills as related to the child's emotional disorder or mental illness, including problem solving, decision making, communication, conflict resolution, anger management, social skills, and recreational skills;

(v) implementing deescalation techniques as recommended by the mental health professional;

(vi) implementing any other mental health service that the mental health professional has approved as being within the scope of the behavioral aide's duties; or

(vii) assisting the parents to develop and use parenting skills that help the child achieve the goals outlined in the child's individual treatment plan or individual behavioral plan. Parenting skills must be directed exclusively to the child's treatment; and

(5) direction of a mental health behavioral aide must include the following:

(i) a total of one hour of on-site observation by a mental health professional during the first 12 hours of service provided to a child;

(ii) ongoing on-site observation by a mental health professional or mental health practitioner for at least a total of one hour during every 40 hours of service provided to a child; and

(iii) immediate accessibility of the mental health professional or mental health practitioner to the mental health behavioral aide during service provision.

Subd. 10. Service authorization. The commissioner shall publish in the State Register a list of health services that require prior authorization, as well as the criteria and standards used to select health services on the list. The list and the criteria and standards used to formulate the list are not subject to the requirements of sections 14.001 to 14.69. The commissioner's decision on whether prior authorization is required for a health service is not subject to administrative appeal.

Subd. 11. Documentation and billing. (a) A provider entity must document the services it provides under this section. The provider entity must ensure that the entity's documentation standards meet the requirements of federal and state laws. Services billed under this section that are not documented according to this subdivision shall be subject to monetary recovery by the commissioner.

(b) An individual mental health provider must promptly document the following in a client's record after providing services to the client:

(1) each occurrence of the client's mental health service, including the date, type, length, and scope of the service;

(2) the name of the person who gave the service;

(3) contact made with other persons interested in the client, including representatives of the courts, corrections systems, or schools. The provider must document the name and date of each contact;

(4) any contact made with the client's other mental health providers, case manager, family members, primary caregiver, legal representative, or the reason the provider did not contact the client's family members, primary caregiver, or legal representative, if applicable; and

(5) required clinical supervision, as appropriate.

Subd. 12. Excluded services. The following services are not eligible for medical assistance payment as children's therapeutic services and supports:

(1) service components of children's therapeutic services and supports simultaneously provided by more than one provider entity unless prior authorization is obtained;

(2) children's therapeutic services and supports provided in violation of medical assistance policy in Minnesota Rules, part 9505.0220;

(3) mental health behavioral aide services provided by a personal care assistant who is not qualified as a mental health behavioral aide and employed by a certified children's therapeutic services and supports provider entity;

(4) services that are the responsibility of a residential or program license holder, including foster care providers under the terms of a service agreement or administrative rules governing licensure; and

(5) adjunctive activities that may be offered by a provider entity but are not otherwise covered by medical assistance, including:

(i) a service that is primarily recreation oriented or that is provided in a setting that is not medically supervised. This includes sports activities, exercise groups, activities such as craft hours, leisure time, social hours, meal or snack time, trips to community activities, and tours;

(ii) a social or educational service that does not have or cannot reasonably be expected to have a therapeutic outcome related to the client's emotional disturbance;

(iii) consultation with other providers or service agency staff about the care or progress of a client;

(iv) prevention or education programs provided to the community; and

(v) treatment for clients with primary diagnoses of alcohol or other drug abuse.

Subd. 13. Exception to excluded services. Notwithstanding subdivision 12, up to 15 hours of children's therapeutic services and supports provided within a six-month period to a child with severe emotional disturbance who is residing in a hospital; a group home as defined in Minnesota Rules, part 9560.0520, subpart 4; a residential treatment facility licensed under Minnesota Rules, parts 9545.0900 to 9545.1090; a regional treatment center; or other institutional group setting or who is participating in a program of partial hospitalization are eligible for medical assistance payment if part of the discharge plan.

HIST: 1Sp2003 c 14 art 4 s 8; 2004 c 228 art 1 s 38-42

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