Why is ICAMA needed?

ICAMA

The Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICAMA) helps states ensure that adoption assistance eligible children receive benefits and services, wherever they live. The ICAMA provides a legally binding uniform administrative framework that eliminates the need for a new eligibility determination when a child eligible for adoption assistance is placed in or moves to a new state. The ICAMA benefits the child by ensuring seamless transfer of Medicaid. The ICAMA benefits states by minimizing the administrative time required to place a child for adoption in a new state or to transfer Medicaid to an adoption assistance eligible child who is moving to the state.

Public Law 96-272 (Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980)

ICAMA has its underpinnings in federal law. As part of the effort to encourage the adoption of children with special needs, P.L. 96-272 directed states to protect the interstate interests of adopted children. ICAMA was enabled in all but one state to ensure the delivery of medical and other services to children and their adoptive families on an interstate basis.

Administration of the ICAMA

Administration of the Compact is the legal responsibility of the designated Compact and Deputy Compact administrator in each state. This person, or designee, uses the official ICAMA processes and procedures to facilitate the provision of benefits and services for children with adoption assistance agreements.

ICAMA and Medicaid

The Compact is essential because the systemic differences between states can create barriers for children who need medical benefits in interstate situations. Each state has a different Medicaid program; the forms, information required, benefits, and coverage vary substantially. The ICAMA, when uniformly administered, eliminates the barriers created by these program differences. The Compact mandates the use of standard forms and procedures that meet federal and state requirements to ensure that eligibility determinations remain the province of the Adoption Assistance state freeing other states from this administrative burden. The states, through AAICAMA. The Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance have established a national network of Administrators who work together so that every eligible child who moves to a new state has two professionals the Adoption Assistance state ICAMA administrator and the new state ICAMA administrator watching to be sure services are received without the delays usual to the interaction of separate administrative structures. The benefits of this are clear: states remain federally compliant and families are assured of services.

Post-Adoption Services

Adoption specialists agree that the availability of post-legal adoption services is directly related to the success of an adoption and the long-term stability of adoptive families. Geographic boundaries do not alter the need for these services. While the Compact does not mandate the delivery of these services, it does foster a coordinated response by states to ensure that the child receives what they need. Compact administrators help families identify providers of these services if they are not provided by the public agency. In fact, the Compact declares that their administrators will assist the agencies of other Compact states in accomplishing interstate delivery of all types of services. This is not a matter of professional courtesy, but lawful obligation.

Conclusion

Adoption is one of the cornerstones of permanency planning for children in foster care who cannot be returned to their biological families. Families, not bureaucracies, are best at parenting children. Yet, finding adoptive parents for children with special needs is a difficult task. Adoptive parents need assurances that they will receive the benefits and services they need to raise these children, wherever they live.

The compact helps ensure that geographic boundaries do not become barriers to parents trying to meet the ordinary and the special needs of their adopted children by providing substantive guarantees and workable procedures for interstate cooperation.

Excerpted from Why ICAMA is Needed by Elizabeth Oppenheim.
Ms. Oppenheim is the former director of Interstate Affairs for the American Public Human Services Association which provides secretariat services to the Association of Administrators for the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance.