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Long‑term care and community providers press for Medicaid rate increases and home‑and‑community investments
Summary
A coalition of long‑term care providers, designated agencies and home‑health organizations urged the committee to implement rate increases recommended in recent rate studies and to fund home‑and‑community‑based services to avoid higher hospital and facility costs.
Meg Polite, policy director for the Vermont chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, representing the Long Term Care Crisis Coalition, asked legislators to implement increases for home‑based choices for care and enhanced residential care described in the Department of Vermont Health Access 2023 rate study, and to include a 4% long‑term care inflation adjustment.
Multiple designated and specialized service agency leaders — including Jennifer Stratton (Lamoille County Mental Health Services), Elizabeth Walters (Green Mountain Support Services), Glenn Fear (chief clinical services officer at HCRS) and Delania Norton (Champlain Community Services) — testified in favor of a 6.2% Medicaid rate increase for designated and specialized service agencies. They said staffing shortages, turnover and rising costs threaten service capacity and that higher rates would support recruitment, retention and program stability.
Jill Mazah Olson, representing VNAs of Vermont (home health and hospice providers), requested raising Medicaid home‑health rates to 90% of Medicare and asked for funding that would bring at‑home choices for care rates up to cost as outlined in the 2023 DVHA rate study. Eric Fritz, president of the Vermont Association of Adult Day Services, described revenue lost to participant absenteeism and requested an $880,000 general‑fund allocation to offset absenteeism losses among 11 adult‑day programs.
Nut graf: Providers across the long‑term care and community behavioral health system called for multi‑line increases — Medicaid rate boosts, inflation adjustments and targeted one‑time funds — arguing such investments reduce avoidable hospitalizations and preserve community‑based care options.
Ending: Witnesses said the requested increases are tied to the 2023 rate study and asked the committees to implement the study recommendations in the FY26 budget.
