Legislative Bulletin: One-House Budget Proposals Restore Harmful Medicaid Cuts
One-House Budget Proposals Restore Harmful Medicaid Cuts
As anticipated, the Senate and the Assembly released their one-house budget bills and resolutions last Saturday night and early Sunday morning. LeadingAge New York is pleased to report that both houses opted to add funding that would be sufficient to eliminate new Medicaid cuts proposed in the Executive budget, specifically rejecting the 1 percent across the board Medicaid cut. The Senate provides $74.25 million to restore other cuts to long term care and the Assembly restorations are similar.
Nearly all of our priority issues have been addressed in the proposals in one way or another, which means they live to fight another day as the State moves toward a budget deal by the end of the month. Highlights of both the Senate and the Assembly one-house budgets as they relate to senior housing and long-term/post-acute care were sent directly to LeadingAge members on Monday afternoon in our One-House Budget Update.
These final weeks of March will reveal a great deal regarding both the final budget and the distribution of federal relief provided by the American Rescue Plan. Your voice and hard work to advance our priorities and oppose harmful cuts is so appreciated. Thank you for your dedicated participation in advocacy.
Call Lawmakers TODAY and Demand Budgetary Support for Nursing Homes and ACF
The Legislature and the Governor have just 12 days to reach a final SFY 2021-22 Budget agreement. Now that we know where each house stands on our issues, it is imperative that we keep up the pressure on lawmakers to ensure they properly invest in long-term care and our priorities make it into the final budget.
Please call your lawmakers TODAY and remind them of your priorities, thank them for restoring proposed Medicaid cuts, and let them know how critical it is to properly fund nursing homes, adult care facilities and other aging services providers that are still recovering from - and actively fighting - the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bottom line: nursing homes and adult care facilities need strategic investment and support from the Legislature in order to provide the best care possible to New York’s aging population. In speaking with lawmakers, do your best to cite specific costs that your organization has incurred due to inflated costs of PPE, testing requirements, staffing challenges, etc. Stress that long-term care has been underfunded for several years, and these financial strains were only made worse by the pandemic and unfunded mandates. Our budget materials and the one-house budget update linked above will help inform these conversations.
Thank you again for your advocacy as we enter the final stretch of budget negotiations!
ACTION ALERT: 5-Year Affordable Housing Capital Plan & Resident Assistants
The Assembly one-house budget includes language that would require the Governor to submit, as part of the annual executive budget, a statewide comprehensive five-year capital plan to support the development, preservation, and improvement of affordable housing in New York. The five-year plan would be required to provide for the development and/or rehabilitation of affordable housing targeted to low-income seniors. This funding is critical to ensuring the availability of affordable senior housing and helping New Yorkers maintain their independence while keeping them out of higher levels of care. LeadingAge NY works with a coalition of affordable housing associations to advocate for this 5-year plan and we are pleased to see this language in the Assembly one-house proposal. However, since the proposal is not in both of the one-houses, we need to keep up the pressure on lawmakers to ensure the inclusion of this language in the final budget.
Please contact your legislators, both Senator and Assembly Member, and express the need for this Assembly one-house proposal to be included in the Final 2021-22 State Budget!
Additionally, although it was not included in either of the one-houses, please also mention the Affordable Independent Senior Housing Assistance Program. This program requests a $10 million investment over 5 years ($2M/year) to fund resident assistants in affordable senior housing. The program works to connect seniors with aging services available in the community and help preserve seniors’ independence. When speaking with legislators, express your disappointment in not seeing the proposal included in the one-house budgets, and say that you hope you can work with them on advancing this proposal in the future.
Fair Pay for Home Care Included in Senate One-House
The Senate has included a version of the Fair Pay for Home Care Act in their one house budget, recognizing that funding for better wages for direct care workers are a critical component of any effort to increase New York's long term care workforce. LeadingAge New York supports the inclusion of this language which provides funding to professionalize the home care workforce and provide supports and incentives to improve recruitment and retention. This type of investment is integral to providing quality care and allowing people to age in place in their homes and communities.
However, LeadingAge New York remains concerned that Medicaid reimbursement rates continue to be significantly underfunded leaving providers struggling to cover current obligations. Moreover, the budget language does not fund the wage increase for aides providing care through Medicare and other payers. Providers need assurances that any wage mandate will be sufficiently funded and ongoing so that providers already operating at negative margins with limited staff are not left to cover these costs. A mandate without sufficient and transparent funding on a permanent basis would jeopardize the whole industry, the care it provides, the staff it employs and the population it serves.
Members are strongly encouraged to call their lawmakers and articulate these concerns. Legislator contact information is available here.
Legislature Convenes Joint Budget Conference Committee Meetings
Following the release of their one-house budget proposals over the weekend, this week both the Senate and the Assembly passed their respective resolutions and then promptly convened the Joint Budget Conference Committee process to begin negotiating a final budget. The Legislature announced the General Budget Conference Committee (“The Mothership”) and other subcommittee appointments late Tuesday night. The first round of joint committee meetings were held on Wednesday afternoon via Zoom. A list of “The Mothership” and other subcommittee appointments is available here.
LeadingAge NY followed all the individual subcommittee meetings closely, particularly the meetings on health, housing and human services. In most of the meetings, legislative leaders reviewed the key proposals made by their respective house’s budget. In the health subcommittee, these measures included the elimination of the global cap and an increase in Medicaid spending. In the subcommittee discussion, Senator May and Assembly Member Kim urged support for the Senate's proposed wage increase for home health workers, as well as for the $1 million in funding for the long-term care ombudsman program included in the Assembly proposal. Meanwhile, minority members expressed concerns about the elimination of the global cap laid out by the Assembly one-house.
LeadingAge NY Members are strongly encouraged to see if their legislator sits on any of the key budget subcommittees. If your legislator sits on any of these committees, particularly the health, housing, or human services, please take a few minutes to call them and relay the budgetary issues that are most important to your organization. The overarching message is this: long-term care requires targeted investment, more adequate Medicaid reimbursement and robust investment in workforce in order to provide the best care to New York’s aging population.
ACT NOW to Prevent Medicare Payment Cuts!
While we are encouraged by the recent downward trend of COVID-19 infections and deaths, along with significant progress in vaccinations, we recognize that the months ahead will continue to present obstacles and challenges for both aging services providers and the older adults they serve.
In order to ensure that our nation’s aging services can continue to provide quality care to patients and not be subjected to billions of dollars in cuts during this ongoing pandemic, we ask that Congress take action before April 1, 2021, to:
1) Extend the 2% Medicare sequester moratorium.
2) Prevent the projected 4% Medicare spending cut (approx. $36 billion) scheduled to begin next year due to Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) statute reductions.
We need the House to pass H.R. 1868 before April 1st and send it to the Senate.
Please TAKE ACTION TODAY to extend the Medicare sequester moratorium until December 2021 and prevent further Medicare cuts scheduled to begin next year. The House is expected to take action on this bill next week so let’s keep the pressure on!
Nursing Home and ACF Bills Positioned for State Senate Action
While this week has been quieter on the legislative side due to all the budget activity, there are several bills that are still positioned for legislative action, particularly in the Senate. The below bills are all on the Senate Floor Calendar and are awaiting action by the Senate:
- Adult Care Facility (ACF) Penalties Bill - A.196 (Gottfried)/S.1576 (Rivera) – Memo of Opposition; The bill proposes an increase in potential penalties for ACF violations from up to $1,000 per day to $2,000 per violation per day—or $3,000 per day for a repeat violation.
- Psychotropic Medications - A.5841 (Gottfried)/S.2103 (Sepulveda) – Memo of Opposition; This bill would require an enhanced level of informed consent before psychotropic medications can be prescribed for residents of nursing facilities (NFs) or adult care facilities (ACFs).
- Nursing Home Immunity Repeal - A.3397 (Kim)/S.5177 (Biaggi) – Memo of Opposition; This bill would repeal the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act. LeadingAge NY strongly opposes this bill, as the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act provides health care providers and professionals with reasonable immunity from liability during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
All three of these bills are on the Senate Floor Calendar and have been flagged for potential action on Monday. Please call your Senator TODAY and urge them to reject these proposals! Our memos of opposition linked above will help inform your conversations with lawmakers and serve as great talking points on all three of these bills. You can also share the memos directly with lawmakers. Legislator contact info is available here.
Register Now for LeadingAge National Virtual Lobby Day!
Every year, LeadingAge connects members with their lawmakers on Capitol Hill to advocate for policies that remove barriers to care, advocate for more affordable senior housing, develop new services, improve reimbursement, and make America a better place for older adults. This year, as aging services providers begin the process of rebuilding in a post-crisis world, it’s more critical than ever to make our voices heard.
LeadingAge’s Congressional Lobby Day is scheduled for April 21, 2021 and registration is now open! Congressional lobby days serve as great opportunities to meet with elected officials and advocate for issues that are important to aging services. Importantly, with new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer leading the Senate and House Democrats maintaining their majority, New York is well positioned to be particularly influential on the national level. Additionally, if you are new to national advocacy, registrants will receive a confirmation email with dates and times for a lobby day training and open office hours. Learn more and register today!
Connect with your Lawmakers on Social Media!
Social media is an effective way to amplify our advocacy message. Its public nature also encourages lawmakers to engage and holds them accountable to listen to the issues affecting providers in their districts. At this critical point in our budget advocacy, it is a great time to engage with lawmakers on Twitter, Facebook, or even Instagram!
Please take a moment to Tweet or post on Facebook, tagging your lawmakers with the following message. Feel free to include a photo to draw added attention:
“.@Legislator The COVID pandemic has exacerbated the effects of chronic under-funding of long-term care. Providers continue to shoulder excessive, unreimbursed added costs of COVID, on top of already inadequate reimbursement. Seniors deserve more. Support LTC in one-house budgets!”
Legislator’s social media accounts can easily be found with our Find My Legislator tool.
LeadingAge & LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources
LeadingAge NY continues to closely follow all COVID-19 news and we are doing our best to keep members informed of updates, recommendations and guidelines from the Department of Health (DOH).
LeadingAge NY and LeadingAge National Member resources are linked below.
LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources
LeadingAge NY COVID-19 Weekly Update calls – Mondays at 11 a.m. Click here to join the call from your computer, android or apple device. Or you can join the call by dialing in: 877 853 5257 (Toll Free); Webinar ID: 852 964 255.
LeadingAge National Coronavirus Resources Page
LeadingAge National Pandemic Playbook
COVID-19 Group in the MyLeadingAge Member Community
Coronavirus Daily Member Update calls – Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Past call recordings are available here and you can register here for future calls.
Contact: Ami Schnauber; 518.867.8854; aschnauber@leadingageny.org
Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org