Pa. providers, lawmakers rally in Harrisburg for human services funding

Pennsylvania’s human service providers and lawmakers rallied this week in Harrisburg for workforce support, stable funding, and system reforms.

Members of the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA) joined bipartisan Pennsylvania lawmakers at the State Capitol Rotunda to call on Governor Shapiro and the General Assembly to prioritize stable funding, workforce investment, and administrative reforms in the final 2026–27 state budget. Human service providers called for action to protect Pennsylvania’s health and human services system.

“Pennsylvania’s health and human services system is only as strong as the providers who show up every day for individuals and families in need,” RCPA President & CEO Richard Edley said. “We are here because rates have not kept pace with inflation, the workforce crisis is real and continues, and the administrative burden on our providers is unsustainable. We need the governor and the legislature to act now.”

With over 400 members, the majority of whom serve over one million Pennsylvanians annually, RCPA is among the largest and most diverse state health and human services trade associations in the nation. RCPA provider members offer mental health, substance use disorder, intellectual and developmental disabilities, children and youth, criminal and juvenile justice, brain injury, medical rehabilitation, pediatric rehabilitation, and physical disabilities and aging services.

RCPA Board President Carl Clark emphasized that provider viability is inseparable from access to care for vulnerable Pennsylvanians.

“When providers can’t keep their doors open, the people who depend on them have nowhere to turn,” said Clark. “Pennsylvania has an opportunity in this budget to invest in a system that works — for providers, for the workforce, and most importantly, for the individuals and families we serve.”

The Capitol Day event brought together providers from across Pennsylvania who deliver mental health, substance use disorder, intellectual and developmental disabilities, brain injury, physical disabilities and aging, early intervention, and other critical human services to more than one million Pennsylvanians each year.

Reflecting the bipartisan consensus that a strong human services infrastructure is essential to the health and economic well-being of communities across Pennsylvania, Sen. Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) and Reps. Ann Flood (R-Northampton), Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland) and Arvind Venkat (D-Allegheny) spoke in support of the provider community. They emphasized the increasing urgency of the funding and workforce crisis facing Pennsylvania’s provider community and called for a budget that reflects the real cost of delivering care.

RCPA’s 2026 legislative and administrative priorities include the following:

• Advocating for funding levels and rate structures sufficient to support provider operations, workforce recruitment and retention, and sustainable service growth.
• Eliminating duplicative documentation, reporting requirements, and multilevel audits, and redirecting administrative savings toward service expansion, workforce stability, and innovative program models.
• Ensuring transparent accounting of HealthChoices spending from allocation to spend, and deepening partnership with DHS and HealthChoices primary contractors for regulatory and process consistency.
• Understanding and responding to key federal Medicaid changes while partnering with providers and DHS for collaborative implementation and a meaningful seat at the table.
• Streamlining inconsistent and duplicative regulations across multiple agencies to enhance integrated, whole-person care and improve operational efficiency.

Priorities highlighted at the event included advocating for rate increases and waiting list reductions in intellectual and developmental disabilities services, reforming supervision standards in behavioral health, pursuing a dedicated legislative package for brain injury services — where funding has not increased since 2011 — and allocating new Early Intervention funding to address the deficit identified in the 2024 Office of Child Development and Early Learning rate study.

County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania Executive Director Dr. Kyle C. Kopko highlighted the shared interest of county government in a stable, well-funded service delivery system.