How does your state determine rates for purchasing residential child care, child placement services, or foster care? Are those rates in dispute?

Public Consulting Group (PCG) can help.

 

PCG Human Services, a seasoned provider of child welfare consulting services with 25 years of experience in the field, can assist child welfare agencies and provider networks in structuring and calculating the proper rates for providers of foster care, child placing agencies, and residential institutions. We can also help child welfare departments by successfully implementing a structure to collect the cost of care and assess current rate methodologies.

 

PCG works with purchase of service entities, state child welfare agencies, lead agencies, and county offices to help them consider political, financial, and quality concerns, in deciding how much to pay providers. We help organizations to properly examine

Political concerns.

Funding priorities, stakeholder community, legal disputes, federal, state and local regulations, and audit risk

Financial concerns.

Budget constraints and capacity, the actual cost of care, Federal Financial Participation (FFP) for specific services

Quality concerns.

Provider capacity, community connection, individual consumer needs, breadth and depth of service, and outcomes

PCG knows the importance of considering environmental factors when setting provider payment rates. The client's environment, the client's goals, and any additional complicating factors should be taken into account when setting and analyzing payment rates.

PCG Expertise

PCG has effectively assessed state-specific provider payment rates against national standards. Our analysis to determine the preferred payment model for our child welfare, early childhood, and other human service clients.

  • Understanding of the agencies goals and objectives in the rate methodology;
  • Benchmarking state-specific rates to national standards and peer states;
  • Determining reasonable standards for specific areas of cost;
  • Reviewing service-specific cost drivers;
  • Comparing current rates to national standards on the cost of caring for a child;
  • Conducting a national survey of how states set payment rates and;
  • Providing national expertise to states encountering legal challenges. Our cost report rate setting knowledge is grounded in a core set of principles:
  • Knowledge of OMB Circular A-87 and A-133
  • Knowledge and understanding of all costs, utilization, and other aspects that affect specific rate calculations
  • Knowledge of federal entitlement and grant program rate requirements
  • Legislative policy review
  • Market analysis

Ask us about PCG's rate setting consulting projects with

  • State of Indiana, Department of Child Services
  • Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Children and Families
  • State of Florida, Department of Children and Families
  • State of Illinois, Department of Rehabilitation Services - Vocational Rehabilitation
  • State of Michigan, Early Childhood Investment Cooperation
  • Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care
  • State of New York, Department of Health - Bureau of Early Intervention

More Information

For more information about PCG Human Service's Child Welfare Payment Rate Setting Services please contact us at info@publicconsultinggroup.com or 1-800-210-6113.