Alert to HCAOA CT Chapter Members: ACTION NEEDED BY TOMORROW!

​The Connecticut Department of Social Services has published notice of intent to amend Home and Community-Based Medicaid Waivers for personal care assistance to provide temporary increases in provider rates. The HCAOA Connecticut Chapter supports the rate increases and urges Chapter members to submit comments in support of the increases and copy their legislators by tomorrow December 30, via email to the Department of Social Services, Attention: Jennifer Cavallaro, Director at Jennifer.Cavallaro@ct.gov. 

The rate increases are as follows: 3.5% rate increase, retroactive to July 1, 2021, in existing rates approved by CMS for all provider types and services; 6% minimum wage increase, retroactive to Aug. 1, 2021; and 1% enhanced performance-based supplemental payments.
 
While the rate increases are temporary, one-time and inadequate to support and sustain Medicaid services by home care agencies, they are necessary and a step in the right direction.
 
Here are several talking points to offer why the State should support the rate increases:

• Reimbursement rates help protect the State’s most vulnerable citizens while adequately and fairly reimbursing providers for their services.
• Minimum wage increases and extraordinary expenses occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic have made it extremely challenging for providers to continue to participate in the Medicaid program or take new cases. At the current rate, some providers will be forced to close their agencies, jeopardizing clients and increasing costs for the State.
• Recent rate increases have only partly offset increases in minimum wage, which are slated to increase again in July 2022. Funding has not been proportionate to the mandated wage increase nor adequate to support ongoing services.
• Caregivers provide essential support that enables elderly and disabled persons to live in their own homes longer and keeps them from being readmitted to the hospital or long-term care facilities, saving the State significant resources.
• Increased costs, which are necessary to care for vulnerable Medicaid clients, are a further strain on agencies already challenged by mandated wage increases.
• By most objective measures, including cost and quality of life, aging at home is preferred to other living arrangements. For about half the per-client cost of institutional care, care in the home offers a cost-effective, high quality alternative to institutional care.