Personal Care Services are designed to assist children with physical dependency needs related to the following activities of daily living: eating, bathing, dressing, personal hygiene, bladder and bowel requirements, or taking medications.
Tasks performed by a personal care aide are similar to those that a nurse’s aide would normally perform if the patient were in a hospital or a nursing facility.
Personal care services should supplement, not to supplant other resources available to the child. Personal Care Services for Medicaid beneficiaries under 21 are subject to prior authorization. To request prior authorization of personal care services, the provider must submit a completed DMS-618 Personal Care Assessment and Service Plan.
The DMS-618 should document at a minimum, the following information:
- Complete patient demographic, PCP and Personal Care Provider information. The 9 digit Medicaid Provider Number is needed for the PCP and for the Personal Care Provider.
- Detailed physical assessment of the child, including medical diagnoses that have resulted in the child’s increased physical dependency needs.
- Detailed personal care service plan. This should specify the individual tasks that the personal care aide is to perform, including the duration and frequency of each task.
- Specific documentation of the alternate resources for personal care assistance. If the request is for personal care services to be provided in a school setting, a clear, a concise description of the child’s classroom setting to include the teacher/student ratio must be provided.
- The client or the client’s representative, the assessing registered nurse and the client’s PCP must sign and date the DMS-618.
Providers should submit requests for the prior authorization of personal care services within thirty calendar days of the start of care date. Approvals may be retroactive to the beginning date of service if the request is received within thirty days of the start of care date.
For complete qualifying criteria, visit the Arkansas Medicaid Website to see Arkansas Medicaid Manual for Personal Care Services.
Pages 1 thru 6 of the DMS-618 should be sent to:
Qsource Arkansas
124 West Capitol Ave., Ste. 900
Little Rock, AR 72201
Telephone: 866-321-5415
