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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Ortiz y Pino

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

01/30/08

HB

SHORT TITLE Personal Health Care Provider Reimbursement

SB 424

ANALYST Weber

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$4,000.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

REVENUE (dollars in thousands)

Estimated Revenue

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

FY10

$9,800.0 Recurring

Federal

Medicaid

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Human Services Department (HSD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 424 appropriates $4 million from the general fund to the Human Services Department

to increase or make more equitable the reimbursement rate for personal care option providers to

bring their reimbursement rate more in line with that for other Medicaid providers.

Senate Bill 424 – Page

2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $4 million contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall revert to the

general fund.

Including the federal match the total available for the personal care providers would be almost

$14 million.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

HSD notes that the PCO providers have asked that their rates be increased to the rate paid for

Homemaker services under the Disabled and Elderly Waiver program. This rate is currently

$14.60 per hour. The total funding necessary to make such an increase is estimated to be $17

million requiring $4.9 million from the general fund.

Medicaid providers received rate increases for fiscal years 2007 and 2008. PCO providers

received increases in both of those years, albeit less than that proposed in this bill. In FY07 the

PCO providers received a $1.00 per hour rate increase for Consumer Directed Ongoing

Attendant Care raising that rate to $12.50 per hour. In FY08 PCO providers received a 1% rate

increase for Ongoing Attendant Care rates. Additionally, on October 1, 2007, the two tiered rate

structure for PCO Consumer Delegated Ongoing Attendant Care services was eliminated in favor

of a single rate structure to reduce the administrative burden for PCO providers. This change also

resulted in a payment increase

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