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2020 Session

Budget Amendments - HB30 (Member Request)

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Chief Patron: Hope
Increase the Auxiliary Grant Rate

Item 353 #2h

Item 353 #2h

First Year - FY2021 Second Year - FY2022
Health and Human Resources
Department of Social Services FY2021 $16,600,000 FY2022 $17,400,000 GF

Language
Page 356, line 42, strike "$40,660,209" and insert "$57,260,209".
Page 356, line 42, strike "$40,660,209" and insert "$58,060,209".

Page 357, line 2, strike "$1,409" and insert "$1,809".



Explanation

(This amendment provides funding to increase the the Auxiliary Grant (AG) rate, a state supplement that provides maintenance and care to aged, blind, and disabled adults residing in an assisted living facility (ALF), adult foster care homes, or supportive housing settings, by $400 a month. The AG program is funded 80 percent state and 20 percent local. The current monthly AG rate, also known as the maximum rate that a provider can charge an AG recipient, is $1,317 for the majority of jurisdictions in the Commonwealth and $1,515 in Northern Virginia. The 2018 long-term care services report from Genworth, a company that tracks the cost of providing these services in each state, estimated the monthly cost of private pay ALF services as $4,451, more than $3,000 above the current AG rate. In fiscal year 2018, Virginia expended approximately $23 million (state and local) to serve about 4,500 unique (unduplicated) AG recipients. The average monthly AG caseload has decreased by more than 1,600 or 30 percent since 2008. This decrease is counter to the increasing aging population in Virginia. In 2020, 16 percent of Virginia's population will be age 65 or older and by 2040, one of every five people in Virginia will be 65 or older. Virginia has not spent the full allocation for several years, with close to $3.0 million unused in the last fiscal year. A $400 increase brings the AG rate closer to the actual costs of providing room, board and services to the AG population. This rate increase would translate to a rate of $1,717 in most of Virginia and $1,915 in Northern Virginia. Raising the rate would allow more individuals to qualify for the program, though a person's countable income must still fall below the proposed new rate.)