Panel lays over bill to extend customized‑living rate framework to disability waivers

Senate File 812 would expand Minnesota’s customized living reimbursement framework so that providers serving people on the Community Access for Disability Inclusion (CADI) and brain injury (BI) waivers receive reimbursement under the same full rate framework that was phased in for elderly‑waiver residents. The bill’s A1 amendment directs the commissioners of the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services to consult with stakeholders to draft legislation better aligning assisted‑living licensing requirements with the reimbursement framework.

Zania Harout, board president of the Residential Providers Association of Minnesota, told the committee the legislature and DHS separated reimbursement systems in 2021 and that in 2023 the legislature fully phased in the new rate framework for elderly‑waiver providers but did not fully implement the same phase‑in for CADI and BI providers. Harout and other witnesses said the result is that identical services in the same building can be reimbursed at a materially lower rate for people on disability waivers than for elderly waiver beneficiaries.

Committee discussion recounted the prior phased approach. DHS staff explained the initial partial phase‑in was driven by fiscal considerations and that the phase‑in is frozen until the legislature changes it. Senators acknowledged a cost implication to broadening the framework and asked for fiscal analyses. The chair and sponsor said the legislation is a starting point to continue stakeholder work and to resolve inconsistencies between assisted‑living licensing requirements and cost components recognized in the customized living framework.

Disposition: the committee laid Senate File 812, as amended, over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill and signaled that fiscal notes will be requested as the proposal advances.