Lawmakers hear $24.9M biennial price to clear DD waiver wait list; committee forms health budget subcommittee

The Joint Appropriations Committee in Dubois heard detailed testimony Tuesday that funding everyone currently on the developmental disabilities (DD) waiver wait list would require about $24.9 million on the 2027–28 biennium, and that addressing provider reimbursement and emergency-care funding will be necessary to convert that budget into real services.

Why it matters: The committee must weigh a biennial funding request alongside broader Department of Health priorities and federal matches. Lawmakers and providers told the committee that money alone will not solve a workforce shortage and that the state’s rate study and rebasing work must inform any appropriation.

Stefan Johansson, director of the Wyoming Department of Health, told the committee the department’s follow-up memo projects 389 people on the DD waiver wait list as of the hearing, with a modeled projection in the 400–450 range if current enrollment trends continue. "If you, legislature, wanted to provide support waiver budget right now for everybody on the wait list, that would provide them an individual level budget," Johansson said, summarizing the department’s estimate that the supports waiver costs about $30,000 per year per person and that funding roughly 415 people would total about $24,900,000 for the biennium. Johansson said approximately half of that amount would be state general fund, matched by federal Medicaid dollars.

Department officials emphasized three connected policy issues…