PRESS RELEASE – Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) sent a letter to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams applauding the ACF for suspending enrollment-based child care reimbursement provisions in a 2024 rule titled Improving Child Care Access, Affordability and Stability in the Child Care and Development Fund.
The Biden-era rule would have required states to reimburse publicly funded child care based on enrollees, similar to what appears to have caused the fraud issues in Minnesota.
The suspension of this rule will allow Ohio to continue operating under their current, attendance-based reimbursement model.
“The ACF’s action will help prevent fraud, protect taxpayers and ensure federal dollars only pay for care actually delivered to working families.
“A suspension of the enrollment-based reimbursement mandate allows states to reimburse child care services based on actual attendance, a system that the state of Ohio currently uses,” wrote Husted.
“Revelations in recent months of billions of dollars in fraud and theft in means-tested programs, including to facilities allegedly providing child care services to falsely enrolled individuals in Minneapolis, Minnesota, support our decision to allow attendance-based reimbursement,” added Husted.
“While attendance-based reimbursement for child care is not the only remedy to prevent bad actors from abusing other means-tested programs, like the recent home-health care fraud allegations in Ohio, it does create a verifiable attendance record and ensures taxpayer dollars are used for families utilizing program resources, and makes it much easier for states to protect program integrity,” the senator continued.
“Federal legislators and executives have a responsibility to ensure that dollars spent on reimbursing child care and other means-tested programs go towards the families and providers that need it most.
“Your decision to end the enrollment-based reimbursement mandate will help better ensure the integrity of taxpayer dollars, and I look forward to working with you to continue protecting taxpayers from fraud,” Husted concluded.