Legislative Bulletin: State Lawmakers Return to Albany for Budget Work

February 25, 2022

State Lawmakers Return to Albany for Legislative and Budget Work

The Legislature is scheduled to return to Albany to resume their legislative session and budget work on Monday. After having returned to their districts this week for a recess, last night the Legislature posted several committee agendas for next week - including an agenda for the Assembly Health Committee.

While legislative and committee work remains active, it is clear based on the short length of the agendas that the Legislature’s focus remains on the 2022-23 State Budget. Last week, we reported that the Governor had posted the 30-day amendments to the Executive Budget Proposal. Now that the Legislature has the 30-day amendments, each house will ramp-up their work on their one-house budget proposals. As a reminder, the one-house budgets are an important piece of the overall state budget process; in order to have a budget ask included in the final enacted budget, it must be included in the Senate one-house, the Assembly one-house or the Executive Budget Proposal. We are expecting to see one-house budget proposals finalized the week of March 7^th, although there has not been an official due date made public.

Next week will be mark some of the final days for our LeadingAge NY membership to contact their lawmakers and provide input for the one-house budgets. If you have not yet connected with state lawmakers on your top budget priorities, there is still time to do so! You can easily find your lawmakers’ contact information here and ask to set up time for a 15 minute phone call or virtual meeting. Additionally, members can use our LeadingAge NY Budget Issue Briefs to inform your conversations and share with lawmakers as a “leave-behind” material. Of course, in addition to meetings, members are strongly encouraged to use the budget advocacy letters linked below.

ACTION ALERT: Send Your Lawmakers LTC Budget Letters TODAY!

Now that the Senate and Assembly is beginning to finalize their one-house budget proposals, and our grassroots advocacy efforts are well underway, it is critical that we re-enforce our message and priorities to legislators via email letter writing. Digital advocacy letters are an easy way to engage in budget advocacy and ensure that your lawmakers understand your top SFY 2022-23 budget priorities.

Using the below links, members can easily send digital advocacy letters to their State Senator, Assembly Member, and the Governor with just a few clicks! Our LeadingAge NY network of advocates has a broad and powerful reach, and it is critical that we engage with as many lawmakers as possible at this important stage of the budget process.

This is a critical time for legislators to hear from you! Please use the links below to send messages to your legislators and the Governor TODAY! After you send your letters, please be sure to share links with your colleagues and board members to expand our advocacy reach.

Invest in High Quality Nursing Home Care in This Year’s Budget

Invest in ACF/AL Providers and Workforce in This Year’s Budget

Provide Adequate Reimbursement and Investment to HCBS

Ensure Access to Safe and Affordable Senior Housing in this Year’s Budget

Oppose Competitive Procurement of Medicaid MLTC Plans

Support Adult Day Health Care in This Year’s Budget

DOH and OHIP Host Webinar on NYS Medicaid Budget Proposals

The New York State (NYS) Office of Health Insurance Programs (OHIP) hosted an informational webinar outlining the NYS Medicaid Budget Proposals for the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2022-23 Executive Budget on Wednesday, Feb. 23^rd. The slide presentation from this webinar has been posted to the Department of Health website here, and a recording of the webinar is also expected to be posted here in the coming days.

LeadingAge NY joined the webinar and posed several budget-related questions to the offices prior to the webcast. Policy staff also submitted questions during the Q&A portion of the webinar which lasted nearly an hour. Submitted questions included inquiries about details of the nursing home quality pool funding, distressed provider funding, the exclusion of adult care facilities from VAPAP funding, telehealth for home health and adult day health care services, and more. Unfortunately, none of our distinct questions were addressed during the call, and there was not much new information provided.

LeadingAge NY will continue to try to get our out-standing questions addressed by the DOH, OHIP and/or legislative leadership. As we learn more, we may have new advocacy action items for members to engage in. Stay tuned.

Urge Congress to Fund Vital Aging Programs and Services

It is time for Congress to pass a long-term government funding bill that sustains and expands investments in home and community-based services, affordable housing for low-income older adults, and measures that address the aging services sector’s severe workforce challenges. Continuing resolutions do not allow for increases to key federal programs that sustain our aging services infrastructure.

CLICK HERE to send a message to your members of Congress TODAY, urging them to invest in aging services!

Right now, congressional leaders are negotiating federal investments in aging services programs for next year and we need your help! Too many older adults are struggling to access the essential services they need and funding levels must increase. Senators and Representatives must hear from constituents like you to stress the message that they can’t leave older adults behind.

LeadingAge National Leadership Summit and Lobby Days

LeadingAge National is hosting its Leadership Summit on March 28-30, in-person, in Washington D.C. The leadership summit convenes thought leaders from across the aging services sector for mission-critical conversations. The summit is among the most valuable networking events in the field, bringing together providers, businesses and policy experts over three days of keynotes, education sessions, VIP discussions, and meetings on Capitol Hill. More information on the summit itself is available here.

LeadingAge’s Lobby Days will be held in tandem with the summit. Although many congressional offices are staying remote and virtual at this time, LeadingAge’s goal is to organize and schedule as many in-person meetings with congressional offices as possible as part of their 2022 Lobby Day activities. If you are interested in joining us to urge Congress to properly support and fund the nation’s aging services and the care needs of older adults, please click here to register for the Leadership Summit!

Once you are registered for the summit and in-person lobbying, LeadingAge will get to work on setting up meetings with congressional offices on your behalf. If a congressional office is only offering a virtual meeting option, LeadingAge will then work with members to schedule a virtual meeting at a later date.

To ensure members are prepared for congressional meetings, LeadingAge will also be hosting a virtual “Know Before You Go” webinar with The Advocacy Guru, Stephanie Vance on Tuesday, March 22^nd from 2-3pm to go over talking points, tips on how to have in-person meetings in this new environment and logistical support. Invites for attendees to register for the webinar will be coming soon, and it will also be recorded for member reference.

If you have questions about engaging in federal advocacy initiatives, please feel free to contact Sarah Daly (sdaly@leadingageny.org) and we can help you get the answers you may be looking for.

Governor Signs Several LTC Chapter Amendments into Law

Yesterday, the Governor signed several pieces of legislation that represent chapter amendments to bills that were passed during the 2021 Legislative Session. The chapter amendments were agreed upon by the Legislature and the Governor at the end of last year, and were then passed by both the Senate and the Assembly over the course of the last few weeks.

Below is a review of Chapter Amendments that have now been signed by the Governor, as well as the legislation’s effective dates.

A.8592 (Clark)/S.7777 (May) - Relates to the state long-term care ombudsman program.

Amends Chapter 759 of the Laws of 2021 related to the strengthening the long-term care ombudsman program.
Effective May 25, 2022

A.8787 (Woerner)/S.7717 (Kavanagh) - Requires every general hospital and nursing home to comply with Medicare and Medicaid conditions of participation for antimicrobial stewardship programs in health care facilities.

Amends Chapter 737 of the laws of 2021 by clarifying that general hospitals and nursing homes must meet the federal standards for antimicrobial stewardship programs in health care facilities including training requirements for infection prevention and control.
Effective March 23, 2022
LeadingAge NY Letter of Opposition on 2021 Legislation

A.8798 (Cruz)/S.7776 (May) – Relates to the reimagining long-term care task force.

Amends Chapter 758 of the Laws of 2021 related to enacting the "reimagining long-term care task force" to create a task force to study the state of long-term care services in this state.
Effective 45 days after the end of the state disaster emergency, declared pursuant to executive order 11, issued on November 26, 2021.
LeadingAge NY Memo of Support on 2021 Legislation

A.8826 (Burdick)/S.7888 (Harckham) - Relates to providing information regarding competency exams offered to qualified home health aides.

Amends Chapter 661 of the laws of 2021 by requiring the Department of Health to place the contact information of all education or training programs which provide home care service competency exams on their website.
Effective August 23, 2022

A.8834 (Gottfried)/S.7885 (Rivera) - Relates to applications for certain hospital projects.

Amends Chapter 766 of the laws of 2021 by clarifying that Certificate of Need applications for certain hospital projects require a health equity impact assessment if the application results in a substantial change of a hospital service or health related service provided by the hospital. The bill also requires an applicant to publicly post the health equity impact assessment on its website within one week of acknowledgement by the Department of Health.
Effective August 23, 2023
LeadingAge NY Memo of Opposition on 2021 Legislation

A.8839 (Wallace)/ S.7886 (May) - Relates to posting of information relating to the long-term care ombudsman program.

Amends Chapter 705 of the laws of 2021 by requiring the Department of Health to translate the nursing home bill of rights to the ten most common non-English languages spoken by individuals with limited-English proficiency in New York State.
Effective June 24, 2022

Of note, there is one piece of chapter amendment legislation we are tracking that has passed in the Senate, but has not yet been approved by the Assembly:

A.8775 (Burke)/ S.7726 (Skoufis) - Directs the commissioner of health to establish and implement an infection inspection control audit and checklist on nursing homes.

Amends Chapter 768 of the laws of 2021 by establishing that the nursing home infection inspection control checklist must be consistent with the infection control survey standards issued by the federal government.
LeadingAge NY Memo of Opposition to active legislation of 2022
LeadingAge NY Letter of Opposition on 2021 Legislation

Tell Us Who You Are Meeting With!

LeadingAge New York knows that many of our members are strong advocates within their regions. We greatly appreciate your diligent advocacy work to ensure that lawmakers understand the significant workforce and financial challenges long-term care providers are experiencing as you try to provide the best quality of care and quality of life possible to residents and older adults.

If you have been meeting with lawmakers this year, or have meetings scheduled for February/March, please take a moment to tell us who you are meeting with! Understanding our membership’s advocacy activities is critical to ensure that our budget message is aligned and reaching everyone that it needs to. It also ensures that our advocacy is effective and efficient, allowing us to properly follow up with lawmaker offices to re-enforce the message we are aiming to convey to the Legislature. Follow-up is a key component of grassroots advocacy so please be sure to let Sarah Daly (sdaly@leadingageny.org) know who you are meeting and speaking with! Members can also opt to use our Advocacy Engagement Form to update us on your activities.

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