IMPORTANT DATE CHANGE: DHS to Hold Public Provider Methods Meeting August 7th

The Department of Health Services (DHS) has rescheduled their public provider meeting about updates to the Methods of Implementation for Nursing Home Payment Rates (Methods) to next Thursday, August 7 from 3-4 p.m held via Zoom.

The meeting was previously scheduled for this Thursday, July 31. Handouts are still not available but the Zoom link is available at the link above.

As a reminder, these public meetings are held in order for DHS to share any proposed updates to the Methods, inflation rates for the upcoming rate year, new cost center targets and other relevant rate information. WHCA/WiCAL does not anticipate many substantive changes to the Methods this year. The standard established in the last two state budgets of funding the Direct Care – Nursing and Support Services cost centers at the median +25% remain in place. While no additional funding was added directly to the rate formula in the recently released 2025-2027 state budget, these benchmarks ensure that rates will likely increase a bit as costs reflected on cost reports have increased over the last year. There are also built-in inflation factors within the formula that will add a bit of an overall increase as well.

We encourage providers to attend and participate in the public meeting. Handouts and any additional information for the meeting will be posted on the DHS rate setting page here. WHCA will share the connection link again in next week’s CareConnection along with handouts if available by then.

Please contact Kate Dickson with any questions.