Case Study: Special Education Management, Medicaid Reimbursement

The Client:
Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD), Michigan
District Type: Large Urban
Total SPED Students: 11,362

The Project:
EasyIEP™ Implementation, EasyTRAC™ Implementation

The Challenge:
For a district with 200 schools, more than 700 end users, and more than 11,000 children with special needs, GISD faced a number of challenges as it sought to transform from a paper-based to a paperless process for producing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).

“The biggest challenge was getting people beyond just filling out the forms. With the tools we had, there was no way to analyze the system through the data that was coming from IEPs. People weren’t thinking about the process.”

Jan Russell
Assistant Superintendent of Special Education Services
Genesee Intermediate School District

The PCG Approach:
GISD began its partnership with PCG in January, 2001. The initial contract called for the implementation of EasyIEP™, PCG’s fully integrated web-based special education data management system. After rolling out EasyIEP™, GISD also elected to implement EasyTRAC™, which allows clinicians to document health-related services for special education students and receive reimbursement for services provided to Medicaid eligible students.

GISD has been using EasyIEP™ to develop IEPs, report on student progress, along with EasyTRAC™ to document Medicaid services. EasyIEP™ also allows GISD administrators to monitor compliance, access student data, and generate state count reports.

By consolidating the IEP and Medicaid documentation processes into one system, providers no longer need to learn two unrelated systems. And the electronic process eliminates duplicate data entry. As student information is entered into EasyIEP™, it is saved in the database historically. So as a child progresses from one grade to the next, from one school to the next, and from one IEP to the next, their previous IEP information remains saved in the system. Subsequent annual review and other documents can be written more efficiently by using this historical data as a starting point.

And as GISD’s needs change from year to year, PCG staff adapts services accordingly. The result is a streamlined, process-driven system that is fully compliant and meets GISD’s vision for special education management.

The Result:
To date, PCG has helped GISD transform its IEP process and recoup more than $8.1 million in Medicaid reimbursement. GISD’s end users have created more than 280,000 documents and have documented more than 630,000 services using PCG’s special education management tools.

“PCG has helped us create a more child-centric approach to special education. The technology has helped us to focus on what we’re trying to accomplish in meetings, rather than just on the paperwork. It’s been great working with all of the PCG staff; it’s been a positive experience overall.”

Jan Russell