NM Early Childhood Agency Budget Gaffe Places Family, Infants, and Toddler Services in Jeopardy
Provider agencies serving infants and toddlers are losing important personnel and have been “left holding the bag,” due to a state agency failing to ask the legislature for enough money to cover a rate increase in the budget it developed for the critical Family, Infant and Toddler (FIT) program.
The rate increase was part of a plan developed in a study completed in December of 2022, for the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department, the agency that runs the FIT program.
Early intervention services are critical to about 16,000 infants and toddlers with disabilities or delays helping them to learn many key skills and catch up in their development.
Even more devastating, the agencies are losing key specialized personnel for these due to the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) not noticing that their budget did not include the money for a planned and long overdue rate increase.
Many provider agencies have had to tell employees that the pay increase they started to receive on July 1, 2024, would end on August 18, 2024. If the provider agency continues to pay the increase, it will not be reimbursed for the pay raises, as they were informed by the Secretary of the ECECD, Elizabeth Groginsky.
Yesterday, The Candle asked ECECD public relations specialist, Julia Sclafani, to confirm that the state was reneging on the increase that it initially okayed. Sclafani asked The Candle to send her any questions and she would get back to us today.
The Candle sent an email with five questions that have gone unanswered, despite a follow up phone call and email this afternoon.
The Candle has confirmed through several reliable sources that provider agencies are only being provided the rate increases for the raises and related services through August 18, 2024.
Late this afternoon, The Candle spoke with Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, Chair of the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee and asked if anyone from ECECD had informed him of the problem.
He said our call was the first he had heard about it. It was obvious that he was upset.
Provider agencies are losing, or about to lose important personnel – physical therapists, developmental specialists, speech pathologists and an occupational therapists – to other employment opportunities, including various school systems, as a result of the ECECD failure.
Below is a copy of the emailed questions The Candle submitted to public relations specialist and Secretary Groginsky, and that have not been responded to:
- Will you confirm that the rate increase, as driven by the PCG study recommendations, and that was being proposed State Plan Amendment (SPA) request to increase rates within the Family Infant Toddler (FIT) program for specific services provided on or after July 1, 2024, has been withdrawn, not submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), or reneged on in any manner by the state?
- If the rate increase has been withdrawn or reneged, was it by a decision of the Secretary of New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department and/or the Secretary of the New Mexico Health Care Authority?
- What is/are the reason(s) the rate increases are not being provided?
- Is it true that your agency is aware the rate increase was expected and that direct service personnel were provided increases in their compensation, but that the state will only pay for increases for the period of July 2024, through mid-August 2024, due to the proposed amendment being withdrawn and/or not submitted?
- If the rate increases that were to be provided by the proposed amendment are in fact in jeopardy, what is your agency doing to correct the problem, i.e., is the agency requesting a Budget Adjustment Request, a supplemental budget, or similar action to meet the CMS requirement that funding for the state’s share is met for the rates to be increased as proposed for the full fiscal year of July 2024, through June 2025 (FY25)?
Further reporting to follow.