Legislative Bulletin: Join LeadingAge NY for Digital Day of Action on Jan. 31st

January 26, 2024

JOIN US: Digital Day of Action on Jan. 31^st!

On Wednesday, Jan. 31^st, LeadingAge NY is asking ALL LeadingAge NY members to post at least one social media post tagging your local legislators, urging for adequate funding of the long-term care and aging services sector!

Take Your Advocacy to Social Media on Jan. 31^st!

Copy and paste any of the below messages to post on Facebook or Twitter/X – but make sure to tag your local legislators! Members are also welcome to draft their own social media messages urging for certain budget actions.

Identify your local legislator’s social media “handle” (@):

Find your legislators here, and then google their name followed by the name of the social media platform (EX. Senator Michelle Hinchey, Facebook) to confirm their personal profile.

Copy and paste any of the below DRAFT posts into your social media platforms
- Nursing Homes
  1. NY’s nursing home Medicaid reimbursement is among the worst in the country! Medicaid directly impacts our ability to recruit staff, and staffing shortages are causing access to care issues throughout the health system. (Tag your legislators here) - Nursing home Medicaid needs FULL FUNDING and REFORM! #NYHealthBudgetGap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG46F6Sj9c0
  2. Shortfalls in Medicaid reimbursement impact 97,000 NY nursing home residents, impacting the quality, equity, and accessibility of care for our most vulnerable! The nursing home funding gap is $810M! (Tag your legislators here) , let’s bridge the gap and fix this broken system. #NYHealthBudgetGap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG46F6Sj9c0
- Home & Community Based Services
  1. The chronic underfunding of home & community-based services is negatively impacting access to home care. Unavailability of home care is causing a ripple effect throughout the health care system, backing up hospitals and clinics! (Tag your legislators here), please address the needs of older adults & those with disabilities in the 2024-25 budget! #SupportOurSeniors
- Adult Day Health Care
  1. During the pandemic, all 116 adult day health care (ADHC) programs had to close. Since then, only 55 reopened, leading to a large gap in services and support for older adults & caregivers. (Tag your legislators here), please increase Medicaid rates to improve access to this valuable model of care for older adults! #SupportOurSeniors
- Affordable Senior Housing
  1. NY must invest NOW in modest, innovative programs that support healthy aging & help people age independently. (Tag your legislators here) – please support the Affordable Senior Housing Resident Assistant Program (A.4716/S.2080) and include an investment of $10M/5yrs in FY 2024-25. The program pays for itself and offers savings to the State! #SupportOurSeniors
- Assisted Living Program
  1. The Assisted Living Program (ALP) is the only AL available to low-income older adults & its Medicaid rate hasn’t been increased for inflation since 2007. (Tag your legislators here), NY must update the ALP rate and provide better funding to ensure the viability of this important level of care. #NYHealthBudgetGap
- Managed Long-Term Care
  1. Support for #agingservices & the system that cares for older adults is a reflection of our values. (Tag your legislators here), please support specialized provider-sponsored managed long term care plans that can care for people best as they age & needs change.
Make Sure You Include Your Legislators Social Media Handles in the Post!

Feel free to edit the posts to better suit your organization or create your own! If you write your own message, please be sure to use the recommended hashtags (#NYHealthBudgetGap; #SupportOurSeniors) and tag your elected officials!

We also encourage our members to share these social media messages with their boards, staff, and other colleagues to amplify our unified message on this Digital Day of Action on Jan. 31st!

Finally, please feel free to add one of these social media graphics to your post to improve traffic and visibility.

Thank you for joining us in digital advocacy!

ACTION ALERT: Resident Assistants in Affordable Senior Housing Bill Added to Senate Housing Agenda

On Monday Jan. 29^th, the Senate Housing Committee is scheduled to meet and consider advancing LeadingAge NY priority legislation to establish a dedicated Affordable Independent Senior Housing Resident Assistant Program [A.4716 (Rosenthal L.)/S.2080 (Kavanagh)]. If established and funded, this program and the resident assistants (RAs) themselves would provide “light-touch” services for older adults such as: establishing and maintaining networking relationships with community-based services and organizations; providing residents of affordable senior housing with information and referral lists for community services; arranging for educational and socialization programs; and establishing resident safety programs. A strategic and modest investment in a New York State Affordable Independent Senior Housing Resident Assistant Program would also result in significant savings to the State’s Medicaid program by keeping low-income older adults out of more costly levels of care, such as assisted living or nursing homes.

LeadingAge New York strongly encourages members to contact your State Legislators TODAY in support of the Resident Assistant in Affordable Senior Housing Program! CLICK HERE to send a digital advocacy letter in support of A.4716/S.2080! It only takes a few clicks, and would also help us secure funding for the program in this year’s state budget!

LeadingAge NY Advocacy Day Prep Call – Recording Now Available

LeadingAge NY’s much-anticipated in-person Advocacy Day is only a few days away! To help members prepare for Tuesday’s advocacy activities, LeadingAge NY held an Advocacy Day Prep Call this morning. During the call, policy staff reviewed legislative budget handouts, discussed the overall message we are aiming to communicate to the Legislature and shared important arrival and coordination information for the day. The prep call was recorded and is now available to all members on the 2024 Advocacy Day website.

All members, even those not attending advocacy day, are encouraged to watch the call recording at their convenience as it provides a concise review of what has been proposed in the Executive Budget, and what we will need to advocate for and against in this 2024-25 state budget cycle.

We are so excited to see our members next week in Albany for an energizing day of advocacy! All information about our 2024 Advocacy Day, including final budget issue briefs and parking/arrival information, are available on the website. Please reach out to Sarah Daly (sdaly@leadingageny.org) with any additional questions.

LeadingAge NY CEO Testifies at Joint Legislative Health Budget Hearing

The Legislature held its Joint Legislative Hearing on the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2024-25 Health Budget on Tuesday, Jan. 23^rd. The health hearing was the first of this year’s budget hearings, meaning there was a very short turn-around time for LeadingAge NY to analyze the Executive Budget Proposal and produce materials for written and in-person testimony.

Fortunately, LeadingAge NY President and CEO Jim Clyne was selected to offer in-person testimony at the hearing, testifying in the late afternoon. LeadingAge NY also submitted written testimony to complement the three minutes allotted to speak. If you missed the hearing and were not able to tune in, a clip of Clyne’s testimony and questions is available here. An archived recording of the full hearing is available here.

LeadingAge NY reported on the hearing in more detail in this week’s Intelligence. In short, as health committee members posed questions to state agencies and stakeholders, it was not long before legislators brought up the need for better nursing home and long-term care funding. Based on lines of questioning, it was clear that many legislators have been hearing from providers and constituents about the impact of chronic underfunding on residents, older adults, and individuals with disabilities, as well as related impacts on the larger health care continuum. To us, the legislators focus on long-term care in their questions is a signal and testament to all of the advocacy our members have participated in over the last few years. This is your advocacy in action!

While it appears that the Legislature already shares our concerns and fears about the underfunding and staffing dynamics at play New York’s long-term care sector, it was also clear that many legislators had not been aware of the magnitude of the cuts to long term care proposed in the Executive Budget. Our advocacy over the next 2 months will be critical if we wish to see INVESTMENT in LTC rather than CUTS!

Nursing Home Rebasing Bill Advances to Senate Finance Committee

On Monday, LeadingAge NY priority legislation on nursing home rebasing [A.5905-A (Woerner)/S.6914 (Rivera)] advanced out of the Senate Health Committee and was reported to the Senate Finance Committee. The bill would require New York State’s Department of Health (DOH) to update nursing home Medicaid rates at least every five years, in consultation with a workgroup that includes technical experts in nursing home rate setting. In the Assembly, the bill is in the Ways and Means Committee after having advanced through several committees in 2023.

LeadingAge New York strongly encourages nursing home members to contact your State Legislators in support of nursing home rebasing! CLICK HERE to send a digital advocacy letter in support of A.5905-A/S.6914!!

After sending the digital advocacy letter above, members are encouraged to learn what committees your State Senator and Assembly Member are a part of. You can find your legislators here, and then simply visit their websites to see the committees they sit on. If your legislators sit on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, or the Senate Finance Committee, give their office a call and ask them to advance and pass nursing home rebasing legislation!

Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org