Governor Kehoe Releases FY27 Proposed Budget

Governor Kehoe released his FY27 proposed budget on Tuesday afternoon. While we have been preparing for a challenging budget year, the initial news was not as concerning as we had anticipated.

The budget documents themselves were fairly cryptic, and it required multiple phone calls and follow-up inquiries to better understand the proposed impacts. Based on what we know so far, there is some encouraging news as well as a few areas of concern.

The good news:

Home care provider rates were not cut in the Governor’s proposal.

Areas of concern:

The budget does propose several reductions, including:

• The elimination of incentive payments tied to HCBS workforce studies

• Proposed caps on:

• Personal care services under the Independent Living Waiver

• Respite services under the Aged, Blind, and Disabled Waiver

At this time, we do not have specific details on how these caps could be structured or implemented if this cut remains in the final budget.

It is important to remember that this is the Governor’s proposed budget. The House has already begun its work on their budget, and the process will then move to the Senate. Throughout this process, we will continue to strongly advocate for home care and home health Medicaid rates to remain intact—and to have meaningful discussions with legislators about why those rates must ultimately be increased due to rising costs across our sector.

As the budget moves forward, we will be reaching out to members to assist with our advocacy efforts. Your voices, experiences, and data are critical to ensuring lawmakers understand the real-world impact of these decisions.

We will continue to keep you informed as more details become available.