DOH Sends Minimum Wage Survey to All ALPs
The Department of Health (DOH) sent an email on Fri., Sept. 16th to all Assisted Living Program (ALP) providers asking them to complete a minimum wage survey. If any ALP members have not received this email, please let us know immediately. The survey will be used to gather data to determine an ALP Medicaid rate adjustment to help pay for the minimum wage mandate. Each ALP provider should submit one survey, which is due on Mon., Sept. 26th. No extensions will be granted.
By way of background, LeadingAge NY has been working with DOH and other stakeholders to estimate the impact of wage increases on providers to allow the state to make appropriate adjustments to Medicaid rates. The state intends to provide additional funding to help cover wage increases, including the increased cost of wage-sensitive benefits, for those employees whose wages are below the minimum wage. Unfortunately, the ACF financial report does not provide sufficient detail for this purpose, nor does it parse out costs attributed to the ALP as separate from the ACF. Thus, DOH has determined that collecting wage data through a provider survey is the only way to get the needed level of detail. Those ALPs that also have non-ALP ACF beds will need to determine what costs are attributed to the ALP only.
We urge members to complete the survey quickly and accurately.
Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8828