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Providers urge modest Medicaid rate increases to preserve DSP pay gains
Summary
A coalition of provider groups told the House Health Committee modest, scheduled Medicaid reimbursement increases (3.4% in 2026, 2.3% in 2027) are needed to sustain direct support professional pay and avoid a return to a workforce crisis.
A coalition of provider groups, county boards and advocates told the Ohio House Health Committee they support the governor’s budget in part but urged a modest, state-funded mechanism to continue incremental rate increases for home- and community-based waiver services.
Peter Moore of the Ohio Provider Resource Association told legislators that the large, historic investment made during the last budget stabilized the provider workforce, reducing vacancy rates by roughly one-third and improving hiring quality. "Without them, wages will stagnate," Moore said. The coalition proposed a modest, staged increase to Medicaid waiver reimbursement — 3.4 percent effective Jan. 1, 2026, and 2.3 percent effective Jan. 1, 2027 — and asked the General Assembly to consider a process for regular adjustments.
Debbie Jenkins of the Ohio Healthcare Association said her members used the House Bill 33 rate increases as intended to raise DSP wages and that the increases led to higher applicant pools and better retention. She also urged attention to timing issues that affect the ICF rate formula and supported a separate increase in the personal-needs allowance (P&A) for ICF residents from $50 to $100 per month included in the Medicaid budget. "We fully support this increase in the P and A that's in the Department of Medicaid's budget," Jenkins told the committee.
Adam Harmon of the Ohio Association of County Boards said county boards backed the coalition’s proposal and described local levies’ previous contributions to matching state increases; he warned that local property tax capacity is limited and that further increases should be state-funded. "These incremental increases are designed to keep pace with the...persistent growth in the cost of doing business," Harmon said.
Panelists and advocates, including The Arc of Ohio and People First Ohio, emphasized the human consequences of underfunding and called for predictable adjustments to avoid losing the recruitment and retention gains achieved after the prior budget. The panel did not present a formal fiscal offset for the proposed increases during the hearing; committee members asked for follow-up cost projections and impact analyses.
