(In photo from left to right: Tim Trithart, Lexy Eggert, Joe Kippley, Shelly Ten Napel, Liz Schenkel, Shannon Bacon)
With South Dakota’s 2026 legislative session in the rearview mirror, CHAD and health centers are celebrating some major wins for access to primary care in our state.
Most notably, the fiscal year (FY) 2027 state budget includes $3.4 million in funding for federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) – a critical win to secure fair Medicaid payments and keep health center doors open. Currently, health centers are reimbursed at only 60 percent of the cost of providing care to Medicaid patients. This additional funding will help stabilize health centers by updating their 25-year-old rates to reflect present-day costs. To prevent a similar situation in the future, the legislature also wrote FQHCs into a statute that requires rate reviews every five years. In addition, the FY 2027 budget includes a 1.4% inflationary increase for Medicaid providers.
Together, these changes will have a significant impact on the sustainability of health centers, ensuring continued access to preventive care for over 126,000 South Dakotans. Thank you to the CHAD team, health center leaders, lobbyist Jennifer Stalley, and the legislative champions who joined together to make this possible!
To see what else CHAD was tracking during the legislative session, check out our online bill tracker.
