Families as Allies facilitated its monthly policy update on October 23. You can watch the policy discussion here:
During the first half of the discussion, we reviewed recommendations from a September 26, 2024, letter to state Medicaid Directors from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that oversees Medicaid, entitled “Best Practices for Adhering to Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Requirements.” EPSDT is children’s Medicaid. The letter directs state Medicaid directors to ways they can intervene early and effectively with children to ensure they get the help they need, and their development stays on track. This slide show also gives an overview of the letter.
Please note that Joy Hogge made a mistake when stating what EPSDT stands for, saying that P stands for “Prevention” rather than “Periodic.”
During the second half of the discussion, we reviewed the K-12 Mental Health Task Force recommendations from earlier in October. You can read the full report here. We also discussed the possibility that legislators may use any or all of these recommendations to propose new laws in the 2025 legislative session.
We also discussed contacting your legislators if you have feedback about any of the recommendations in the report. If you want to contact your legislator(s) but do not know who they are, enter your address at this link, and it will tell you who represents you in the state’s upper and lower chambers. The lower chamber is the Mississippi House of Representatives, and the upper chamber is the Mississippi Senate. You can find your Representative’s contact information at this link and your Senator’s contact information at this link.
