AASD and DSD eList announcement

Date: Sept. 29, 2026
To: Lead agencies, providers and other interested parties
From: DHS Aging and Adult Services and Disability Services divisions
Purpose: To announce an upcoming survey about provider costs and wages
Survey opens: October 2026
Survey closes: December 2026
Contact: For questions about the survey, email Guidehouse at MNDHSRateStudy@Guidehouse.com. To contact DHS, email dhs.aasd.hcbs@state.mn.us.

Upcoming survey about provider costs and wages for rate methodology evaluation

DHS plans to conduct a survey about provider costs and wages as part of the next phase of the rate evaluation that began in January 2025. The survey allows providers to help inform the components and factors of the rate methodology for critical services.

DHS first conducted this survey from January to March 2025. We plan to conduct the same survey a second time to:

· Collect responses from providers who did not participate in the first survey.

· Gather updated information from providers who previously responded.

We announced the first phase of the rate evaluation in a Jan. 21, 2025, eList announcement.

Services included in the survey

The survey supports the legislatively mandated rate methodology evaluation for several services provided under:

· Elderly Waiver (EW).

· Community Access for Disability Inclusion (CADI) Waiver.

· Brain Injury (BI) Waiver.

· Alternative Care (AC) program.

· Essential Community Supports (ECS) program.

For EW, AC and ECS, the survey will evaluate the following services:

· Adult day service.

· Chore services.

· Home-delivered meals.

· Homemaker.

For EW and AC, the survey will evaluate the following services:

· Adult companion services.

· Respite.

· Individual community living supports.

For EW, the survey will evaluate the following services:

· Community residential services.

· Customized living services.

For BI and CADI, the survey will evaluate customized living services.

Next steps

Guidehouse, Inc. is DHS’ contractor for this project. Guidehouse plans to:

· Open the survey in October 2026 and close the survey in early December 2026.

· Share instructions with providers via email and post instructions on a website in October 2026.

· Email instructions to providers who completed the survey during the first phase of the rate evaluation on how to access and update their previous survey responses. These providers do not need to complete the full survey again.

· Conduct trainings on how to complete the survey.

· Answer questions via email.

· Host a project website with supporting materials.

DHS will send an eList announcement with more information when the survey opens.

Previous eList announcements

AASD LEAD AGENCY ARCHIVE | DSD LEAD AGENCY ARCHIVE | DSD STAKEHOLDER ARCHIVE