Legislative Bulletin: The Final Month of 2023 Legislative Session

May 12, 2023

LeadingAge NY Publishes Comprehensive Budget Memo

After a month of prolonged state budget negotiations beyond the April 1st deadline, last week, the Senate and Assembly passed legislation enacting the final budget for SFY 2023-24. On Monday evening, LeadingAge New York published a comprehensive overview of the enacted 2023-24 State Budget, summarizing provisions that affect long term care, post-acute care, and aging services providers and the people you serve.

This year’s engagement in advocacy was tremendous, and we want to thank you for all of your efforts. The State was faced with many compelling needs in the wake of the pandemic. While the investments in long term care were less than all worked so hard to achieve, we were able to secure the largest Medicaid rate increases to our sectors in decades. In addition, we fought off burdensome requirements and secured additional funding. This would not have been possible without your continued participation in advocacy.

If you have any questions about the information contained in the overview, please feel free to contact LeadingAge New York’s policy team.

 

ACTION ALERT: Urge Assembly Members to Support Role of the Nurse in ACF & Nursing Home Rebasing!

With four weeks remaining of the 2023 Legislative Session, we are hearing that there may only be two more weeks of Assembly Health Committee meetings. This means that we need to urge the Assembly to move priority health legislation through the committee as soon as possible so that these priority issues can be taken up on the floor for a vote.

There are two priority pieces of legislation which LeadingAge New York strongly supports that have not yet been reported out of the Assembly Health Committee. They are the Role of the Nurse in adult care facilities bill, and a bill to require the more frequent rebasing of the nursing home Medicaid rates. We need these bills to be added to an Assembly Health Committee agenda in the coming days if we hope to see the bills passed and signed.

Please take a moment to call your Assembly Member TODAY and urge that these bills be added to the Health Agenda. This is particularly important if your Assembly Member sits on the Health Committee. If you have the time, please relay both sets of talking points to your legislator’s office. Click here to easily find your legislator’s contact information.

Role of the Nurse Talking Points - A.5670 (Solages)/S.5471 (Rivera):

• I am calling to ask you to support bill A.5670 (Solages)/S.5471 (Rivera), which would allow nurses working in adult care facility and assisted living settings to work within their licensure to provide temporary nursing services to residents that need occasional assistance.   
• Many assisted living facilities in the state currently employ nurses, but their residents are not able to benefit because of restrictions on the duties the nurses can perform in the facility.
• Unfortunately, this means that capable nurses working in these settings can’t provide services to residents; instead, a third party must be brought in to serve the resident.
• This restriction is costly to the State and residents alike.
• When a nurse cannot provide a simple assessment to a resident, it leads to otherwise avoidable emergency room visits.
• When a nurse can’t help to apply a temporary ointment or eye-drops, it means added home care costs for the resident.
• I urge you to work with your colleagues to advance A.5670 (Solages)/S.5471 (Rivera).
• Doing so will improve outcomes and quality of life for older adults. It also will improve efficiencies within our long-term care and larger health care sector.

Nursing Home Rebasing Talking Points - A.5905 (Woerner):

• I am calling today to urge you to provide a long-term solution to the chronic underfunding of nursing homes and long-term care!
• This year, nursing home families, staff and providers like myself from across the state have been urging for a 20% Medicaid increase for nursing homes.
• We have asked for 20% because our nursing home Medicaid rates today are based on 2007 costs. Our rates have not been updated for inflation ever since, despite the fact that costs have risen by 42%, conservatively.
• To solve the root of the problem, the Legislature should require the State to update nursing home Medicaid rates at least every 5 years to better reflect current costs. This can be accomplished with nursing home “rebasing”– as proposed by Assembly Bill A.5905 (Woerner).
• I thank the Legislature for proposing and fighting for a 10% Medicaid increase for nursing homes in this year’s budget, and I am grateful for the investments that were ultimately provided in the final agreement. But, without a long-term solution, we will find ourselves in the same position again every year.
• Please remember, today there are 6,000 fewer nursing home beds available than there were in 2019, and older adults are being turned away for the care they need due to underfunding and staffing shortages.
• I urge you and your colleagues to move this legislation and pass it in your house!

 

Join Us for Next Week’s Public Affairs Council Meeting!

As we find ourselves in the final weeks of the session, it is an important time to ensure that LeadingAge New York and its members are collaborating well on all advocacy and press strategies. The Public Affairs Council’s goal and intention is to allow for better communication and collaboration among LeadingAge NY and our membership as we work together to educate the public and lawmakers about the importance and value of quality, mission-driven long-term care and aging services. This time of year, the key focus is communicating a unified message that will result in the accomplishment of our top legislative priorities.

The next Public Affairs Council meeting is set for Thursday, May 18^th at 3 p.m. During this meeting, we will be discussing important advocacy tools and strategies that are being implemented for the final days of state legislative work. We also will want to hear from members about the social media tools and resources that will be most helpful to you as we begin to move out of state legislative work and into raising awareness of not-for-profit long-term care services.

If you have not already signed up to be a part of our public affairs council, or would like to make sure someone in your organization is a part of the council, you can sign up for emails and Zoom meeting invitations here!

 

The Final Month of 2023 Legislative Session

While this year's budget work has officially concluded and we can indulge in a brief sigh of relief, our work for the 2023 Legislative Session is far from over. Session is scheduled to conclude on June 8^th, and over the next month, lawmakers will be taking up their remaining legislative priorities and attempting to address issues that were not included in the final budget agreement.

With many long term care-related issues still front-of-mind for lawmakers, and with some of LeadingAge New York's own policy priorities remaining unaddressed, it is certain that we will need your continued advocacy throughout the remainder of this session.

Below are digital advocacy campaigns for some of the top legislative issues that LeadingAge NY will be working on over the next five weeks, and there will be more to come! Each link will bring you to a webpage where you can learn about the issue, read our legislative memo, and enter your information to send an email to your lawmakers.

• Oppose Further Restrictions on Psychotropic Medications in Nursing Homes and Adult Care Facilities (ACFs)
• Oppose an Increase in Penalties for ACFs
• Support the Role of the Nurse in ACFs
• Support Affordable Independent Senior Housing Assistance Program
• Authorize the Use of Medication Aides in the Nursing Home – New Advocacy Letter Coming Soon! Flyer in support available here.

In addition to engaging in advocacy action alerts, it is important that members maintain connection with legislative offices over the next several weeks. When connecting with legislators over the remainder of session, thank them for the funding that is being provided in this year’s budget for long term care and aging services – but also express your persistent workforce and financing challenges. Say that you are grateful for the support and attention to long term care that has come this year, but explain that the sector still needs significant resources and support to make up for over a decade of under-funding.

Thank you in advance for sticking with us for the remainder of the 2023 Legislative Session! We will keep you apprised of the latest advocacy action items via our Friday Legislative Bulletins and other more urgent updates as needed. 

 

10 Days Until LeadingAge NY Annual Conference & Expo in Saratoga Springs!

Have you registered for the Annual Conference & Expo on May 22-24 in Saratoga Springs? 

If not, we hope you will consider joining LeadingAge NY in Saratoga Springs, May 22-24th, for this year’s Annual Conference, packed with cutting-edge content from experts in the long term care field! Earn up to 15.5 hours of National Association of Long Term Care Administrator Boards (NAB) and other continuing education units (CEUs). You will not want to miss the NEW-THIS-YEAR Exposition Lounges, the Experience Center, or the Micro Learning Happy Hour!

The detailed program including registration, educational sessions, brochure and hotel information can be found on our website here, and registration is NOW OPEN! However, pre-conference registration will close on May 18^th, so register today to skip long lines and walk right in to enjoy our largest event of the year!

Any questions may be directed to Cathy Bongermino at cbongermino@leadingageny.org.

 

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 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