By Gina Macris

The Rhode Island House has added a total of $9.6 million in federal-state Medicaid funding to boost the pay of direct care workers for adults with developmental disabilities in the state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The increase, awaiting approval by the Senate, represents the largest single-year investment in wages since drastic cuts were made in 2011. In 2016, the legislature earmarked $5 million for a rate hike, and the next year it added $6.1 million.

But the rates for Rhode Island’s direct care workers still lag behind those of neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts.

This year’s wage hike is was part of an overall $296.9 million allocation for developmental disabilities, which includes $13 million in federal Medicaid reimbursement to create a third-party case management initiative called a Health Home.

In an unusual Saturday session June 22, the House also addressed a shortfall in the current developmental disabilities budget, adding $2.9 million in supplemental funding.

Developmental disability services encompass both the private system serving about 4,000 clients and a state-operated network of group homes for about 125 individuals, accounting for more than half the spending in the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH). The House-authorized spending cap for BHDDH in the next budget is $463.2 million.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello explained a floor amendment that raised the total earmarked for a wage increase in Governor Gina Raimondo’s budget from $6.4 million to $9.6 million.

Larry Berman said the governor’s $6.4 million, including $3 million in state funding and $3.4 million in federal reimbursements, will mean a 41-cent raise to the hourly rate for direct support workers on July 1. The hourly rate, which he put at an average of $12.27, would rise to $12.68, Berman said.

The additional $3.2 million in the floor amendment, including $1.5 in state revenue, will be applied Oct. 1, triggering an additional wage hike of 41 cents an hour, for a total hourly rate of $13.09 during the last nine months of the fiscal year, Berman said.

In the past, increases for direct care workers have meant that supervisors and other support personnel have also received raises. But Berman confirmed that this year, the allocation earmarked for pay bumps apply only to front-line caregivers. In all, about 4,000 work in the private sector in the field of developmental disability services.

Berman’s figures refer to the basic hourly wage rate in the BHDDH reimbursement model for private providers, but that doesn’t mean each direct care worker will get the increase he cited.

Many variables exist in the way each of the providers figures out how much to pay workers and how much to set aside for benefits and other employer-related expenses. All that means that the amount of the actual wage hikes will vary.

In the past, the state and the private providers have differed on how far a rate hike will go.

In a statement, Mattiello took credit for redirecting additional funds to direct care workers.

“When about $1 million was identified as available in the budget, I suggested it go to those workers who are providing outstanding care to the developmentally disabled community. They deserve this rate increase.”

The Community Provider Network of Rhode Island, (CPNRI) a trade association of about two dozen providers, posted its thanks on Facebook:

“CPNRI is pleased to see the commitment of the Speaker, Senate President and Governor and all the Representatives and Senators who have supported increased wages for DD workers in Rhode Island in the 2020 budget. This investment not only will raise wages for this invaluable workforce, it supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to lead meaningful lives in our communities. Thank you to all who have prioritized this workforce.”

The wage increase is assured passage in the Senate, where developmental disability services have the support of the leadership, including Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, William J. Conley, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; and Sen. LouisA. DiPalma, first vice-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

The extra push in funding occurred just as Mattiello sought to tamp down a controversy involving a Cranston chiropractor, who was to receive a $1 million authorization to bill the state for services for an unproven neurological treatment for traumatic head injury and other disorders that failed to qualify for federal Medicaid reimbursement..

On June 20, Mattiello announced he would pull the $1 million in funding from Victor Pedro, because the issue had become too controversial and he wanted to avoid a lengthy floor battle, even though he still supported the chiropractor.

Berman said most of the last-minute $1.5 million-increase in worker wages came from the allocation that Mattiello pulled from the chiropractor, along with funds from various other accounts.

Spending for already-established developmental disability programs and services from all revenue sources in the next fiscal year would be capped at $284 million – about $12.3 million more than originally approved for the current fiscal year. Most of that figure comes from the federal-state Medicaid program.

Meanwhile, the House approved a revised developmental disabilities budget of slightly over $274.6 million for the current fiscal year, which is $2.9 million more than the $271.7 million the General Assembly enacted a year ago.

The revised figure includes about $1.7 million in state revenue that represents an adjustment for an audit finding that the state was incorrectly leveraging federal Medicaid money to pay for fire code upgrades in group homes and other facilities serving adults with developmental disabilities, Berman said. Capital projects are now all assigned to the Department of Administration, he said.

Without supplemental funding and savings in other BHDDH accounts, the cost of services in the privately-run developmental disability system would have exceeded the amount the General Assembly originally allocated by about $3.8 million in General revenue.

A third-quarter spending report prepared by BHDDH said that the total state share of Medicaid-funded direct services in the private system is projected at about $111.4 million by June 30. The enacted budget for the current fiscal year allows $107.6 million in that category, but the supplemental funding recommended by the Governor and approved by the House reduces the projected shortfall in state funds to about $152,000, when combined with savings in other accounts.

In the third-quarter spending report for the current fiscal year, BHDDH officials project about a 1.5 percent increase in overall caseload growth and a $1.5 million increase in supplemental funding to clients who successfully appeal the individual amounts allocated for their services.

Counting all the Governor’s proposed supplemental funding for BHDDH in all three divisions, as well as savings in some budget line items, the department projected a year-end surplus of about $438,000 as of March 31.