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A national organization that works to improve the home care industry in West Virginia is celebrating a rate increase that will help seniors and those with disabilities live in their homes longer and with greater dignity.
State officials announced Thursday that the Bureau for Medical Services (BMS) will increase reimbursement rates for home care waiver programs by 15 percent on October 1st.
West Virginia’s waiver programs include services for those with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), the Aged and Disabled (AD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and the personal care (PC) state plan service.
These waiver programs were designed to connect people with disabilities to home healthcare workers and financial support, helping them live outside hospitals and institutions.
Eric Hicks, board president of the West Virginia Chapter of the Home Care Association of America (HCAOA-WV), said the funds will improve the industry’s workforce shortages.
“We’ll be able to pay a living wage and provide the management, leadership, training, nursing, oversight and the things that are necessary in order to make sure that the citizens in West Virginia have people that they can count on that have been properly trained and are getting continuous training to perform the services and provide the services that they need in order to remain safe in their own home,” Hicks said.
According to Hicks, the current reimbursement rate for caretakers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is $18.92 per hour. After October 1st, it will be $25.44.
During the last year, BMS officials have testified to legislative committees that there is a workforce crisis in the IDD program.
In 2023, an actuary firm called Myers and Stauffer LC was hired to conduct a rate study of BMS waiver programs by the agency formerly known as the Department of Health and Human Resources. The study recommended a $6.5 million rate increase for the IDD waiver program to hire and retain direct care professionals.
According to state officials, the 15 percent provider rate increase meets the recommendations of the study.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.
