This is my third update to the original post about the 2022 DWRS rate increase. I think you'll like this one!
To recap, we know that the Legislature passed a schedule of bi-annual rate increases in 2019, beginning in 2022, that will affect wage values and inflationary increases for a few other component values. And we know that they used enhanced federal dollars this year to move the date of the 2022 rate increases up from July 1 to January 1 (upon federal approval, whichever is later). We further know that the rate increases will be phased in over 12 months as service authorizations renew. Using the information we knew at the time, ARRM released a set of rate estimation and comparison tools last month to help providers model the new rates for the people they support and begin to plan their finances for next year.
Recently, during a meeting of the DWRS Advisory Committee, DHS reviewed the new wage component values they expect to use when they update the framework tools once federal approval is received. The wage data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system, and the calculation methodolgy is specified in
MN Statute 256B.4914, Subd. 5. They also revealed their determination of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) change that they expect to use for the inflationary increases to Client Programming and Supports, transportation for residential services, and facility costs for day services.
Based on this new information, we have updated all the calculation tools we had released previously, and added the Positive Supports framework to the list. The complete set of tools is listed below for you to download.
A few highlights:
- Most wage values will increase. For example, the direct care wage for residential services is expected to change from $13.53 to $15.60 (15.3%). This is higher than the $15.53 we had estimated previously.
- Asleep staff wages are expected to increase from $10.08 in Community Residential Settings/$3.63 in Family Residential Settings, to $10.33 and $3.72, respectively (2.5%), based on the state's increase to the large employer minimum wage on January 1, 2022.
- The Positive Supports - Professional wage is expected to change from $33.42 to $40.62 (21.5%).
- The Supervisory wage for most services will decrease from $22.81 to $21.13 (-7.4%).
- The CPI change is expected to increase the 3 components listed above by 5.1%. This is higher than the 4.8% we had estimated previously.
- DHS expects to update the regional variance factor values in July, 2022.
As always, contact
Ken Bence with any questions.
Rate Estimation Tools
Rate Comparison Tools
-Ken Bence, Director of Research, Analysis and Policy