Minnesota lawmakers passed a bill to create a regulatory board to set compensation levels for nursing homes after declining to increase wages.
The Minnesota Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board will set the initial wage limits and working hours by Aug. 1, 2024. Moreover, the board will be responsible for setting minimum employment standards, certifying worker organizations to provide training, and creating curriculum training requirements.
Nursing home advocates pushed against the creation of the regulatory board.
Patti Cullen, CEO of Care Providers of Minnesota, said that by design, the board will be able to enact standards that nursing homes across Minnesota will be unable to afford without support from the Legislature.
“This workforce standards board cannot ensure that standards set by the board can be individually met by Minnesota’s 350 nursing homes,” she said.
Cullen said that although nursing homes very much want to hire and compensate caregivers to provide access to long-term care to communities, without government funding, they will not be able to do so.
“Nursing homes very much want to hire and compensate caregivers to provide access to long term care to communities across Minnesota. Caring for our seniors is an honorable, compassionate profession that offers a rewarding, life-long career option for those who are called to it,” Cullen said. “However, the nursing home workforce standards board does nothing to provide funding for nursing home workers – not their wages, not their benefits, and not the number of staff we have.”
On the brighter side for Minnesota providers, Republican and Democratic lawmakers reached a $2.6 billion infrastructure spending deal on Saturday morning that includes sending $300 million to struggling nursing homes, the Pioneer Press reported.
The Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party – which holds a majority in both House and Senate – put out a two-year budget proposal that hadn’t initially included much funding for nursing homes, which continue to struggle after the pandemic. However, after confronting criticism from their Republican counterparts, an agreement was struck for allotting nursing homes $75 million annually in additional aid over the next four years.
The state legislature also recently proposed an investment of nearly $1 billion in services for older adults at a critical time over the next four years, as the state’s population continues to grow older.
According to LeadingAge Minnesota, the funding, which is currently pending the Minnesota senate, would involve $412 million for Elderly Waiver, the program used to serve low-income seniors in assisted living, adult day, and other home and community-based services, $80 million of one-time money to workforce incentive grants for caregivers who work in long-term care, $100 million of one-time money for a loan program for financially distressed nursing homes, and other funding.
“By prioritizing the needs of Minnesota’s one million older adults, our state’s leaders are fostering a compassionate and supportive environment for all seniors to thrive,” Kari Thurlow, President and CEO of LeadingAge Minnesota, said in a press release. “We are proud to live in a state that values older adults and the dedicated caregivers who serve them each and every day.”
