HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania—The Pennsylvania Homecare Association (PHA) announced praise for the inclusion of a Medicaid reimbursement increase for home health nursing visit services in Pennsylvania's fiscal year 2026-27 budget.
The Pennsylvania Homecare Association is a statewide membership organization of more than 700 homecare, home health and hospice providers.
"Earlier this year, Philadelphia-based Liberty Home Choices closed its doors, laying off 615 employees—underscoring the mounting financial pressures facing homecare providers across Pennsylvania," the organization said in a released statement. "As a result, more than 112,500 shifts of care go unfilled each month and nearly 29% of authorized pediatric nursing hours cannot be staffed, leaving older adults, individuals with disabilities and medically fragile children without the services they need to remain safely at home."
The organization said this home health investment marks "the first meaningful increase" to Medicaid home health nursing visit rates in more than two decades and will help strengthen access to these critical services that prevent rehospitalizations and support independence at home for so many.
PHA also cautioned that the commonwealth's broader homecare workforce crisis remains unresolved due to a lack of critically needed investments for personal assistance services or pediatric shift nursing.
"This budget has real consequences for real people," said Mia Haney, CEO of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association. "When providers can't afford to compete for workers, care simply doesn't happen. Families go without support, medically fragile children remain hospitalized longer than necessary and more Pennsylvanians are forced into higher-cost institutional settings. This is about far more than reimbursement—it's about whether people can access care in their own homes."
The studies found Pennsylvania's reimbursement rates trail neighboring states by as much as 25% to 75%. While surrounding states made significant investments following the COVID-19 pandemic—including West Virginia (59%), Maryland (31%), New York (22.9%), Delaware (18.5%), New Jersey (16%) and Ohio (14%)—Pennsylvania failed to keep pace, leaving Pennsylvania providers increasingly unable to compete for the workforce needed to meet growing demand.
Although the budget process has concluded, PHA emphasized that Pennsylvania's homecare access crisis remains largely unresolved.
"The budget may be complete, but the access crisis is not," Haney said. "Every missed shift represents someone who may go without getting out of bed, taking medication, preparing a meal or receiving the care they need to remain safely at home. The General Assembly has finished its budget work, but it has not finished its work on homecare. We urge lawmakers to return this fall ready to make strengthening the homecare workforce and restoring access to care a top legislative priority."