Lawmakers probe FY2026 AHS budget changes including provider rate increases and cuts to recovery campus funding

Members of the appropriations committee and Agency of Human Services (AHS) staff spent an extended April 9 session reviewing FY2026 changes to AHS appropriations, focusing on provider rate increases embedded in the Global Commitment, cuts the House made to recovery-campus and aftercare funding, and several open follow-ups about rural and community health funding.

Committee members flagged the mixture of provider rate changes that appear in multiple budget sections under the Global Commitment. Staff described two main groups of rate adjustments: one set tied to a 2023 rate study affecting “choice of care” sections and another set covering non–home-health agencies (for example, federally required increases for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics). Committee members asked staff to confirm section-by-section who was included in the increases and whether some provider types were left out. AHS staff acknowledged the increases are shown across multiple 300-series sections of the budget and said they would provide clarifications after the meeting.

Why it matters: The Global Commitment is the mechanism that mixes state and federal Medicaid-related funding across many programs; provider rate changes embedded there affect how much money flows to mental-health providers, developmental services, rural clinics and others statewide.

Discussion highlights and outstanding questions

- Provider rate increases: Committee members asked for a clearer dollar and section-level accounting of increases. One staff member described an initial gross-dollar presentation that shows a split across program sections (for example, a figure…