Effective January 1, 2022, base rates paid to child care providers participating in Child Care Works (CCW), Pennsylvania’s subsidized child care program will increase.  The new base rates are now available online.

About

The current Maximum Child Care Allowance (MCCA) rates (effective March 1, 2021) and the new MCCA rates (effective January 1, 2022) are now available on the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) website. The MCCA is the ceiling set by the Department for payment of child care services to budget groups eligible for child care payment.

Base rates per region can be found in the document Department of Human Services: Maximum Daily Child Care Allowances (MCCA)-effective 1/1/22.

Updating Pay Rates

OCDEL established a fee structure policy to pay all certified child care, relative, and in-home providers serving subsidy children at the lower of two rates – the rate the certified child care providers charge private-pay families or the established MCCA.

Providers who want to update their private-pay rates must communicate those changes to families and provide verification of the updated private-pay rates to their ELRC. If a certified child care provider’s private-pay rate is lower than the new MCCA, they will receive the lower of the two rates.

Allegheny County Providers

Option 1: Certified child care providers can enter their updated rates in Provider Self Service (PSS) and return “Appendix C-1 ELRC Subsidized Child Care Provider Reported Rates” along with the verification of the certified child care provider’s published private-pay rates to the ELRC at elrc5@alleghenycounty.us (put CCW C-1 Rates in the subject line).

Option 2: Certified child care providers can send “Appendix C-1 ELRC Subsidized Child Care Provider Reported Rates” along with the verification of their certified child care provider’s published private-pay rates directly to the ELRC at elrc5@alleghenycounty.us (put CCW C-1 Rates in the subject line).  The ELRC will then enter the new information into PELICAN CCW.

When the certified child care provider returns “Appendix C-1 ELRC Subsidized Child Care Provider Reported Rates” along with verification of the certified child care provider’s published private-pay rates, the ELRC will:

• Enter and/or verify the certified child care providers’ published rates into PELICAN CCW.

• Use January 1, 2022 as the effective date if verification is received by January  31, 2022.

• Convert the rates and save as “Converted Payment Rates.”

• Generate and send to the certified child care provider the “Appendix C-2 ELRC Subsidized Child Care Provider Payment Rates.”

• Once verified, ELRC staff will then convert the payment rates in the PELICAN CCW system, and the certified child care provider will be paid based on the new private pay rates, or MCCA, whichever is the lower of the two rates. The ELRC will not modify rates for any certified child care provider who does not return Appendix (C-1) along with verification of the certified child care provider’s published rates.

The ELRC will not need to enter rates for relative or in-home providers. The ELRC Region 5 will generate and send “Appendix B Subsidized Child Care Relative Provider Payment Rates” to both types of providers.