LeadingAge NY ACF/AL Members Meet With Key Leaders

LeadingAge NY staff and Adult Care Facility (ACF) and Assisted Living providers from across the state came to Albany on Mon., April 28th, for our annual advocacy event. We met with Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand’s staff, Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and key leaders in the Department of Health (DOH) and Governor’s office. A variety of issues and topics were discussed:

• We expressed appreciation for the reappropriation of past ACF funds in the final budget, including approximately $8 million in past EnAbLE funds and urged that the funds be disbursed in this fiscal year.
• We expressed concern about proposed legislation which would require all ACFs to have access to a generator.  We agree that facilities should have generators; however, they are quite costly and the requirement will cause an undue financial hardship to some.  It was also noted that the aforementioned EnAbLE funds can be used to purchase generators.
• We provided DOH with a proposal to expand the role of the nurse in the ACF setting, for those ACFs that want to take advantage of that option.
• We provided DOH with ideas about how to streamline the survey process and achieve greater consistency in interpretation and application of regulations.
• We discussed the transition of the ALP population into Managed Long Term Care and Managed Care, and related issues.  DOH noted that this transition is likely to happen by the end of 2015, as opposed to January 2015.
• We urged for investments to be made to support the development of affordable assisted living.
• We discussed the need to expedite the processing of the federal Aid and Attendance veteran benefits, which is currently taking up to two years to process.  ACF/AL providers cannot afford to subsidize a resident for an extended period of time, and veterans deserve more timely access to their benefits.

It was an extremely positive event, and we were pleased to have the opportunity to thank the aforementioned leaders for all of their efforts in the past year as well. LeadingAge NY is planning follow up advocacy on the Aid and Attendance issue for next week, so please let us know if you have residents with longstanding applications. We thank members for traveling to Albany to make for such a successful event. If you were not able to attend but want to meet with your representatives and want assistance with scheduling or materials, let us know.

Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org or Alyssa Lovelace, alovelace@leadingageny.org; 518-867-8383