Today's deep dive: Delaware's health department put $2.6 million for a first-phase HCBS rate increase in its fiscal 2028 request, while home care providers asked for $26.6 million. Here is the rest of today's news.
Connecticut advocates press Lamont to protect Community First Choice before his February budget A coalition of 16 disability, aging and civil rights groups gathered at the Capitol in Hartford on Nov. 12 to urge Gov. Ned Lamont to fund Community First Choice and Connecticut's other Medicaid home and community-based services in the two-year budget he will propose in February 2027. Earlier this year Lamont proposed turning Community First Choice, which lets people direct their own in-home care, from an entitlement into a waiver program, then dropped the idea after opposition; his administration had pointed to costs rising from $88.8 million in fiscal 2018 to $371 million in fiscal 2025, Connecticut Public reported. A Lamont spokesperson said the administration is committed to quality care for these residents. Sources: CT Mirror, Connecticut Public
Massachusetts workplace violence bill would reach state-overseen group homes House and Senate negotiators are reconciling two versions of a bill on violence against health care workers, and both would apply to group homes overseen by the state but not to nursing homes or home health agencies, the Boston Globe reported Nov. 12. The House version makes knowingly and intentionally assaulting and injuring a worker a felony punishable by up to 10 years; the Senate version lets police arrest without a warrant on probable cause of misdemeanor assault, requires de-escalation and diversion, and delays warrantless arrests at group homes for a year while the state studies de-escalation practice there. The Arc of Massachusetts has asked lawmakers to remove group homes from the bill or at least keep the Senate's one-year delay. Sources: Boston Globe, The Arc of Massachusetts
Pallone and Wyden ask CMS to delay Medicaid work reporting rules set for Jan. 1 The top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Finance committees wrote CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz on Nov. 12 asking him to let every state delay coverage denials and terminations under the new work reporting requirements until its systems are built and tested, and to grant good-faith exemptions to any state that asks. They also asked CMS to publish state readiness assessments, exemption decisions and, once the rules start, state-level denial and termination data. The letter cites the court ruling against CMS's medically frail test and the administration's plan to appeal it. Source: House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats
Northeast Ohio DD boards weigh cuts after levies fail The Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities, whose 2.4-mill levy would have raised about $15.5 million a year, has run a deficit since 2024 and expects to consider ending its family support program, which pays for things like ramps and minor home changes for people not on waivers, superintendent Bill Whitacre told WOSU. Boards pay about 40% of waiver costs, and he said rate increases on those services drove the deficit. Tuscarawas County's superintendent, whose newest levy dates to 1997, said she is working with others on reform of how the state funds the system, and Ashland County's levy also failed. Our Nov. 4 story has the statewide results. Source: WOSU Public Media
A year after Minnesota ended Housing Stabilization Services, advocates see a gap As many as 20,000 people were enrolled when Minnesota shut down its Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services benefit at the end of October 2025 over fraud, MPR News reported Nov. 13. Its annual cost, first estimated at $2.6 million, reached $104 million by 2024, according to federal prosecutors, and 22 people have been charged. The Minnesota Disability Law Center says a 2023 class-action settlement commitment to tell group home residents about the benefit has ground to a halt and believes the shutdown violated the settlement, which DHS says expired in June; county case managers say they lack time to fill the housing role. DHS says it plans to work with a consultant in 2027 on a new housing benefit. Federal Medicaid deferrals to Minnesota now total $550 million, MPR noted. Source: MPR News