Legislative Bulletin: Advocacy Days Just Two Weeks Away!
January 28, 2022
LeadingAge NY Publishes Comprehensive Executive Budget Summary
Earlier this week, and as promised, LeadingAge NY published our comprehensive memo summarizing the aspects of Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget Proposal that impact our membership. As you will see, the Executive Budget includes many proposals that are intended to alleviate the financial stress and workforce shortages that LeadingAge NY members are experiencing, and allocates substantial investment in affordable senior housing. Our comprehensive Executive Budget Summary is available for members to view here.
We are entering the budget process in a far better place than has been the case in over 10 years, seeing investments and relief rather than cuts. This is reflective of the advocacy we have done together over the past year, and we thank you for all of your efforts! However, this is just the beginning of the real budget advocacy work for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2022-23.
Over the next two months, the budget will be poured over and discussed by the Legislature, the public, stakeholders, and the Governor alike. We all need to work together to ensure that your needs and the needs of the people you serve are addressed in the final budget, which will be due by April 1, 2022. Areas that were overlooked in the budget proposal need to be addressed, additional funds must be secured to address rising costs, harmful proposals must be blocked, and positive proposals must be protected. In order for our advocacy to have the most impact, we will need all members to engage with their state lawmakers. Please read on to learn about how you can get involved in the state budget process, make your voice heard, and work with us to #SupportOurSeniors!
Advocacy Days Just Two Weeks Away!
We are less than two weeks away from our 2022 Advocacy Days and time is of the essence! LeadingAge New York’s Advocacy Days will be virtual this year, focused on virtual Zoom meetings, phone calls and letter writing. If you have not already done so, please CLICK HERE to register for our Advocacy Days scheduled for Feb. 9th, 10th, and 11th. Signing up for advocacy days will allow LeadingAge NY to track our advocacy impact and will ensure that our staff can support your advocacy efforts to the best of our ability. All information related to our 2022 Advocacy Days, including virtual advocacy tips, Zoom web graphics, and information for our Budget and Advocacy Day Prep Call on Feb. 3rd is available on our 2022 Virtual Advocacy Day website.
Virtual advocacy poses many unique benefits, including a reduced time commitment in order to participate in meetings and the potential inclusion of residents, staff, or board members in meetings. Member participation in virtual advocacy days may only take a few hours of your time but will be the most impactful tool in drawing the Legislature’s attention to our 2022 budget priorities.
If you have not already done so, members are strongly encouraged to reach out to legislative offices for a meeting, and/or request assistance in setting up meetings as soon as possible! If you would like assistance in setting up your meetings, please simply indicate that preference on the registration form above. However, if you would like this assistance, it is important that you register as soon as possible so that we can secure a meeting at an appropriate time within the state budget process.
Please also note that during advocacy days, LeadingAge NY policy staff will be available to join you for any of the meetings that you schedule. If you would like to ensure a policy team member is assigned to your meeting, please indicate this preference on your registration form.
If you plan to schedule and coordinate all of your own meetings and do not require any assistance from LeadingAge NY, please still take a moment to fill out our registration form. This is critical in allowing LeadingAge NY to track our advocacy impact. Once your meetings are scheduled, please send meeting details (date, time, legislator) to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org. Furthermore, if you have questions, would like to use a LeadingAge NY Zoom account for your meetings, or would like to discuss any advocacy strategy, please do not hesitate to reach out to Sarah directly.
ACTION ALERT: Oppose Competitive Procurement of Medicaid MLTC Plans!
The State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2022-23 Executive Budget proposes to require the Department of Health (DOH) to conduct a competitive procurement for almost all Medicaid managed care plans, including partially-capitated managed long term care (MLTC) plans and integrated Medicare/Medicaid MAP plans. The proposal would impose a limit of 5 on the number of each type of plan in each (yet to be defined) region.
This proposal will limit choices available to Medicaid beneficiaries and will cause widespread disruption in consumers’ established relationships with providers, as plans that are not selected will have to close, and consumers will be shifted to a more limited number of plans that may or may not contract with their chosen providers. The transition of large numbers of consumers to new plans will also have negative impacts on providers, as they will be forced to seek new network contracts, new authorizations for services, and solidify new billing and payment processes with the selected plans.
LeadingAge NY believes that this proposal will not only significantly narrow the Medicaid managed care market in New York, but will also shift the State’s managed care contracts to large national or statewide insurers that do not specialize in high-needs populations. This will be detrimental to both consumers and providers.
Please join us in urging the Governor to remove this MLTC procurement proposal from the Executive Budget through the 30-day amendment process. The Governor’s 30-day amendments will be due on Feb. 17th, which gives us a small window of time to urge for this action to be taken.
Please take a moment to send this digital advocacy letter directly to the Governor’s office TODAY. If you would like to edit the letter at all or add the name of your organization, you can easily edit the letter’s content via the text box at the bottom of the page. Additionally, we recommend taking a moment to call the Governor’s office, at 1-518-474-8390, and ask that this proposal be withdrawn.
Fair Pay for Home Care Legislation Placed on Senate Health Agenda
There are three legislative session days scheduled for next week, during which many bills will be moving through committees and potentially be placed on the Senate or Assembly calendars for a vote. Of particular note, the much-discussed Fair Pay for Home Care legislation, S.5374-A (May), has been set on the Senate Health Committee Agenda for Tuesday, Feb. 1st.
LeadingAge NY’s memo of opposition to the bill is available here. Members with significant concerns about this bill are encouraged to contact their State Senators, particularly if they sit on the Senate Health Committee, and vocalize your opposition. You can reference our memo linked above for relevant talking points. If you are unsure of who your State Senator is or what committees they sit on, you can use our Find My Legislator tool and visit your lawmaker’s website to see which committees they are members of.
Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Housing Scheduled for Jan. 31st
The Legislature is scheduled to host its Joint Legislative Hearing on Housing on Monday, Jan. 31st. During the hearing, members of each chambers’ housing committees, as well as members of Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees will receive testimony from stakeholders and the public on the Executive Budget Proposal as it relates to housing. LeadingAge NY is crafting written testimony to be submitted to the committees by the end of the day on Jan. 31st. We will share that written testimony with membership once it is final. In the meantime, members interested in watching the hearing can do so by tuning in on Monday at 2 p.m. The full hearing will be streamed live on the Assembly website here.
Budget and Advocacy Day Member Call Set for Next Week
As we strongly encourage all of our members to begin setting up virtual meetings with lawmakers to discuss our top SFY 2022-23 budget priorities, we also want to ensure that you have all of the tools, knowledge, and resources you need to have successful meetings. With that in mind, we have scheduled our Budget and Advocacy Day Prep Call for Thursday, Feb. 3rd at 2 PM.
During this member-focused prep call, LeadingAge NY policy staff will review the Executive Budget Proposal, its potential impact on members, and all related budget advocacy materials and issue briefs. We also will discuss and answer any questions pertaining to our 2022 Virtual Advocacy Days and how we hope members will get involved.
We hope that you’ll join us for both our Budget and Advocacy Day Prep call, as well as our 2022 Advocacy Days! Please take a moment to add the below member call information to your calendars:
2022 Budget and Advocacy Day Prep Call
When: Feb 3, 2022 at 2:00 PM EST
Join by webinar link: https://leadingageny.zoom.us/j/96632753135?pwd=OXVOMFh6NE5XQUJmSnhvVW54ZUZoUT09
Passcode: 211657
Or dial by telephone: 888 475 4499 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 966 3275 3135
All the latest information about our prep call and 2022 Advocacy Days is also available on our Advocacy webpage.
LeadingAge National Co-Signs Letter to the White House on Staff Agency Price Gouging
On Jan. 25th, LeadingAge along with several national long-term care and health care organizations, sent a coalition letter to the White House COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator, Jeffrey Zients, asking the White House to address anticompetitive price gouging practices with certain nurse-staffing agencies. The letter reiterates how COVID-19 has presented unprecedented and difficult challenges for the entire health and long-term care (LTC) system and one of the biggest issues faced by all LTC providers across the country is the dire shortage in workforce. Meanwhile, there are countless examples of how nurse-staffing agencies are charging exorbitant prices to desperate providers that simply need workers.
The letter also points out that many LTC and health care providers are paid through the Medicare and Medicaid programs, thus it is the taxpayers who are shouldering these huge price tags. And, ultimately, this price-gouging is not sustainable for providers under the current reimbursement system structure. Furthermore, several groups (such as LeadingAge in October 2021) previously urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate this conduct as a violation of antitrust or consumer protection laws but have yet to receive a response from the agency.
Members of Congress also weighed in on the issue this week, sending a letter of their own calling on the White House to enlist one or more federal agencies to investigate exorbitant price increases by nurse-staffing agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter addresses the specific strain on hospitals who rely on nurse-staffing agencies. Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT), Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and many Members of Congress have received reports in their districts of nurse-staffing agencies charging rates that are double or triple their pre-pandemic rates, while taking 40% or more of the amount charged to local hospitals for themselves. The full letter, signed by 195 additional bipartisan members of Congress, is available here. LeadingAge National is meeting with members of Congress to make it clear that this is not an issue that only affects hospitals; long-term care providers are experiencing the same problem.
LeadingAge & LeadingAge New York 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
COVID-19 Group in the MyLeadingAge Member Community
LeadingAge National Coronavirus Policy Updates – Mondays and Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. Past call recordings are available here and you can register here for future calls.
Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org