Governor Josh Shapiro and members of the General Assembly have agreed to a $50.1 billion budget for the 2025/26 Fiscal Year. This is $2.3 billion more than last year’s budget but less than the Governor’s $51.5 billion proposed budget. The budget includes a $105 million increase in basic education, $665 million for highway improvements, and $1 billion for highway maintenance.
For Human Services, the General Budget bill includes the following increases from 2024/25 to the 2025/26 budget:
- Medical Assistance – Capitation: +3.5%
- Medical Assistance – Fee For Service: +.4%
- Medical Assistance for Workers with Disabilities: +12.3%
- Medical Assistance – Transportation: +5.9%
- Medical Assistance – Long-Term Living: +4.7%
- Medical Assistance – Community Health Choices: +10.7%
- Long-Term Managed Care: +6.8%
- Intellectual Disabilities – Community Base Program: +4.4%
- Intellectual Disabilities – Intermediate Care Facilities: +2.9%
- Intellectual Disabilities – Community Waiver Program: +6.1%
- Autism Intervention Services: +12.9%
- Early Intervention: 7.1%
The following lines have been flatlined or cut between the 2024/25 and 2025/26 budgets:
- Behavioral Health Services: 0.0%
- Mental Health Services: -1.9%
- Intellectual Disabilities State Centers: -5.2%
Please find the entire 2025/26 Budget spreadsheets here.
Additionally, in other Code bills, $20 million was appropriated for county-based mental health funding, and the Four Walls payment issue was resolved in the human services code bill by abrogating 1153.15(6) and 1223.14(11) from 55 Pa. Code.
RCPA will continue to update members as more information from the budget is available. We will discuss the budget in detail during the Government Affairs meeting next Thursday, November 20, 2025. You can register for the meeting here.
Contact Jack Phillips with any questions.
With a little less than a month before kick-off, RCPA is excited to announce a new keynote speaker in our lineup at the 2025 Annual Conference Strive to Thrive! We will now be kicking off our conference with Al Guida, JD, Owner of Guide Consulting Services, Inc., to discuss Impacts of Federal Issues on the Human Services System. Guida is a nationally recognized advocate and strategist who has provided valuable federal policy and regulatory solutions for Guide Consulting Service’s health care clients in the provider, technology, and public health sectors. He has helped clients realize measurable goals in mental health parity, biomedical research, child poverty, and child welfare, and his legislative portfolio includes successful collaborations with major Congressional committees, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Working together, the Guide Consulting Services team have established and secured funding for Mental Health First Aid, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, and the 988 National Suicide Prevention Coordinating Office. In 2024, Guida was recognized as one of DC’s 500 Most Influential People.
Following Al Guida will be Pennsylvania’s DHS Secretary Val Arkoosh. Attendees will shift their focus from the federal level to the state, with the DHS Secretary highlighting key issues facing PA providers, including trends, impacts of federal policy at the local level, and current initiatives related to Performance-Based Contracting and value-based purchasing.
