Some lawmakers are listening to calls for help from the nursing home industry, at least at the state level.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf recently approved a Medicaid reimbursement increase of 17.5% for the state’s nursing homes for next year, translating to an increase of around $35 per resident per day.
The increase to the state’s budget also includes over $131 million in American Rescue Plan funding that will be used to help bridge the reimbursement funding gap that has formed for a state that hasn’t seen a Medicaid funding increase in nearly a decade.
Steve Tack, CEO of Pennsylvania-based Quality Life Services, felt the Medicaid funding gap in the state put his organization at a competitive disadvantage.
“Certainly it has limited our ability to invest in physical plants and buildings and technology,” he told Skilled Nursing News. “In our area, where we have facilities close to West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland, we don’t get employees from those states to the degree that we once did as those states have much higher rates and therefore are able to pay higher wages.”
Pennsylvania Health Care Association (PHCA) President Zach Shamberg said the funding increase marks the single largest Medicaid reimbursement bump for nursing home resident care during a single Pennsylvania budget-cycle in the modern reimbursement era.
The PHCA credited not only its partnership with LeadingAge, one of the industry’s largest advocacy organizations, for seeing the reimbursement increase passed, but also its partnership with SEIU Healthcare PA, the state’s largest union for health care workers, as the relationship between operators and unions appears to have been strengthened over the course of Covid.
“I think both of those groups now see the benefit of needing to [work together] in this very unique environment. Maybe that’s one of those weird things that comes out of Covid is that it creates some interesting partnerships,” senior living advocate and policy expert Brian Perry recently told SNN.
He expected to see more of a push in union and operator partnerships, particularly in more union-friendly states, but also on a national level.
The total additional funding allocated for long-term care for the 2022-23 budget cycle –– including federal matches –– is expected to be around $515 million for Pennsylvania.
“Many of our nursing home providers have questioned their own sustainability — especially throughout the past two years. With this historic investment, these providers will be afforded the opportunity to fulfill their mission of caring for others,” Shamberg said in a news release sent out on Monday. “This is truly a victory for hundreds of long-term care providers, as well as tens of thousands of caregivers and residents.”
While the number of older adults continues to increase, the number of skilled nursing beds pulled offline grew fourfold from 2019 to 2021, according to a recent member survey conducted by LeadingAge Pennsylvania.
Nearly 60% of all Pennsylvania nursing facilities have been categorized as “at fianincal risk, according to a recent report from the PHCA, which is greater than national numbers – 47% – seen in a report released by Clifton Laron Allen earlier this year.
The increased Medicaid reimbursement rates will take effect in January 2023, and ARPA funds should begin to be allocated in the next 2-3 months.
Companies featured in this article:
Clifton Larson Allen, LeadingAge, Pennsylvania Health Care Association, Quality Life Services, SEIU Healthcare PA
