SF 2104 (LSB 5778XS (1) 90)

SENATE FILE 2104

BY  WEINER

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to payments to child care providers participating in the state child care assistance program.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 237A.13, subsection 4, Code 2024, is amended to read as follows:
   4.  a.  The department shall set reimbursement rates as authorized by appropriations enacted for payment of the reimbursements. The department shall conduct a statewide reimbursement rate survey to compile information on each county and the survey shall be conducted at least every two years. The department shall set reimbursement rates at the eighty-fifth percentile as based on the most recent market rate survey and in a manner so as to provide incentives for an unregistered provider to become registered.
   b.  The department shall not modify reimbursement rates to the state child care assistance program or financial eligibility requirements for a family participating in the state child care assistance program without prior enabling legislation in this state passed on or after January 1, 2023.
    Sec. 2.  Section 237A.13, subsection 6, Code 2024, is amended by striking the subsection.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill relates to payments to child care providers participating in the state child care assistance (CCA) program.
   At least once every two years, the department of health and human services (HHS) conducts a statewide reimbursement rate survey to evaluate the market rate of child care services offered throughout the state and adjust the reimbursement rates paid to child care providers through the CCA program accordingly.
   The bill requires HHS to reimburse each provider providing child care services to a child participating in the CCA program at a rate equal to the 85th percentile of the most recent market rate survey. Under current law, HHS must set rates between the 65th and 80th percentile of the 2020 market rate survey.
   The bill removes child care providers’ ability to collect from a family participating in the CCA program the difference between the CCA reimbursement rate and the rate the provider would typically charge a private-pay family for child care.