Legislative Bulletin: CCRC Legislation Advances to the Governor
Good News! CCRC Legislation Passes the Senate, Moves to the Governor
Legislation that would allow Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) to provide Continuing Care at Home contracts to seniors who live in their own homes passed in the Senate on Wednesday and will now be sent to the Governor for final approval. We have been in contact with the Governor’s office and the Department of Health in an effort to ensure the bill gets signed into law. Please send a letter to Gov. Cuomo, urging him to approve the bill.
Continue Your Advocacy Efforts on Staffing Ratios
The Legislative Session is scheduled to end on Thurs., June 19, leaving only 10 days for lawmakers to introduce and debate high priority legislation. These last few days of session are also critical days for advocacy. If you have not yet discussed the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act with your lawmakers, please do so. LeadingAge NY developed a number of tools to guide you in your discussions with lawmakers, including a memo of opposition; region-specific Issue Briefs, which include key points against staffing ratios and regional economic impact data; and a Staffing Ratio Cost Template, which can be utilized to determine the financial impact that the proposed staffing ratio legislation would have on your facility. Also, please don’t forget to send a letter to your lawmakers, asking them to oppose this legislation.
Calling All Golfers!
The LeadingAge NY PAC Golf Tournament is three weeks away – are you registered? Tee off is at 12:45 on Mon., June 16 for the 18-hole tournament, followed by a 3 p.m. pro-clinic and 9-hole tournament. In addition, there are plenty of sponsor opportunities still available for purchase, including tee-sign sponsorships. Those who sponsor a tee-sign will receive their name and their organization/company’s name on a tee-sign located on the green. This sponsorship is available to provider-members, as well as associate members, vendors and non-members. Click here for registration and sponsorship opportunities.
Federal Advocacy Opportunities
- Veterans Aid & Attendance Benefits: Veterans accessing services from assisted living entities and adult care facilities are experiencing a significant delay in Aid and Attendance benefits owed to them by the VA. It is currently taking upwards of two years for applications to be approved, leaving the assisted living or adult care facility to subsidize the cost of care. Please send a letter to your members of Congress, asking them to urge the VA to approve these applications in a timely manner.
- Third Party Liability (TPL): Certified Home Health Agency and Long Term Home Health Care Program providers need your assistance in urging CMS to resume use of a statistical sampling approach or other streamlined methods for purposes of determining Medicare TPL for home health services claims for dual eligibles that were originally paid by New York’s Medicaid program. Please send a letter to your members of Congress, urging CMS to suspend the current, administratively burdensome process for determining Medicare’s TPL for home health claims already reimbursed by Medicaid.
- Older Americans Act (OAA): In 2013, OAA programs lost more than $103 million—a 5.5 percent cut from Fiscal Year (FY) 2012. These programs regained only half of that cut in FY 2014. Funding for FY 2015 is now at a critical point – nutrition programs were the only OAA programs that saw full funding restored in FY 2014 from prior year sequestration levels, and funding for nutrition programs have dramatically lagged behind inflation. Please send a letter to your members of Congress, urging them to restore OAA funding to previous levels.