CAPS Task Force Looks At 3rd Option for Funding

DECAL held another meeting of the Advisory Committee to review the feedback from CAPS community meetings and review revised CAPS funding scenarios. While overwhelmingly providers were asking for a base rate increase, many supported increases to tiered reimbursements to fund higher levels of quality.

DECAL’s vision is that by 2020, all centers must be Quality Rated to be able to participate in the CAPS program. Families that participated in the family forums were asking for lower family co-pays which is not a surprise.

Unfortunately a pivotal piece of information was missing from the forums which shows how much each recommendation would cost, and importantly how many children would be served under the intended recommendations.

Base rate increases would reduced the amount of children served significantly and cost the most.

The good news is that DECAL has recognized that they want to create a plan that serves no less that 50,000 children. Last year there were 55,000 children in the program and that number has been slowly declining due to the restriction of new certificates to those in the priority groups. The current number is approximately 52,000.

DECAL has proposed a “hybrid” alternate plan in which the new current tiers remain in place and parent fees are reduced by 15% for those that enroll their children into a QR program.