Budget Update – Chapter 3
February 25, 2021
The “Conference Report” has been released – there are a few nuggets of good news, but not much in the way of long term support for services going forward.
- Personal Care, Respite and Companion services will receive a an increase to “preserve the safety net” and Consumer Directed Services staff will have access to some paid leave.
- Language about the permanent continuation of telehealth in the DD Waivers and coverage for ABA services is included.
- Funds are included to restore funding for Medicaid Works.
- 435 FIS slots were added to address the Priority 1 Waiting List (this is in addition to those slots already in the Budget).
- Language is added to direct DMAS (with stakeholder input) to develop a plan to support DD Waiver providers using any additional Federal funds which may become available; there are specific priorities established.
- $2.5M is added to support the merger of the Medicaid Managed Care Programs and other language requires that the contracts be modified to require reporting on the terminations of provider’s contracts.
- The language is added to allow further extension of the ~100 “conditional licenses.”
- There is also language for DBHDS to establish a workgroup to review specific issues with DD Waiver rates and requires a plan to eliminate the waiting list; while is allows DBHDS to use existing resources to contract with a vendor to help with data analysis, it does not specifically authorize that the rates be rebased and expects a report too late to be included in the Governor’s Budget. And,
- Funding not expended in Round 1 of the Virginia version of support for Day Services or Residential Services has been “clawed back” for another purpose.