By Alabama Public Radio
Mobile, AL – Mobile County school officials will take the lead in a lawsuit over new Medicaid guidelines that they say would cost their system several hundred thousand dollars a year. The school board voted Monday to join 117 other systems across the state in the lawsuit. It seeks continued reimbursement for school systems for costs associated with serving special-needs students. The systems provide services such as speech and physical therapy, nursing and social work to students who qualify for various types of Medicaid assistance. But new guidelines have cut the amount that school systems can be paid for providing those services by 70 to 80 percent a year.