My son has been in the Medicaid waiver program now for probably 20 years. We get attendant care from the consumer direct attendant care program where we hire them directly and they get reimbursed at the Medicaid approved rate. Currently that rate is $10.50 an hour. The minimum wage in Virginia is now $9.50 an hour. During Covid, because we had to take my son out of his day support center, our hours were increased up to 70 hours a week so we could take care of him at home full time. The problem was we couldn’t find attendant care providers in sufficient capacity to cover those hours due to the low reimbursement rate. So my wife and I had to cover many shifts. 

In addition to the other jobs that can be had for $15 an hour in today’s work environment,  we  in particular noticed that the behavioral therapist paid by the insurance company for the newly diagnosed autistic children (generally in the 2 to 10 age range) were getting paid $15 an hour. We lost several workers to this program. 
Who doesn’t wanna work with a cute kid for $15 an hour as opposed to a 30 year old severely handicapped adult at a dollar above minimum wage. So I can’t blame them. But the 30 year old adult needs to be taken care of also. 

You need to use this new money (or a portion thereof) to increase the reimbursement rate to $15 an hour so we can get competent help. It does no good for us to be allocated all these hours to take care of my severely handicapped son and not be able to find any people to take on the work due to the reimbursement rate. 

My wife and I are now in our 60s and i’ve been taking care of a severely autistic child since we were 32. This is getting old. We need help. 

We’ld love to be able to take care of him in the home but without the support he needs due to the low reimbursement rates I don’t know what the future will bring. This would be consistent with the Olmstead supreme court decision also; which I have contemplated bringing suit under and retain as an option. 

I hope you can help us. 

Mark Williamson

Chesapeake