Legislative Bulletin: New Nursing Home Staffing Legislation Introduced
April 23, 2021
New Nursing Home Staffing Bill Set on Senate Health Agenda
Earlier this week, we alerted our nursing home members to a new staffing minimum bill that was being discussed among legislative leaders. Last night, that bill was printed and introduced in both the Senate and Assembly. The bill A.7119 (Gunther)/S.6346 (Rivera) seeks to establish standard nursing home staffing levels, requiring a minimum of 3.5 nurse staffing hours per resident day in nursing homes, which may be comprised of 2.2 certified nurse aide (CNA) hours and 1.1 registered nurse/licensed practical nurse (RN/LPN) hours. The remaining .2 hours can be filled as needed by providers.
The legislation is already o the Senate Health Agenda set for Monday at 10 AM, and it could very well be a part of the Assembly Health Agenda for next week as well, as that agenda is not yet posted. All factors are indicating that this bill could be moved through the committee and onto house floors for passage rather quickly.
We urge members to call AND email your legislators TODAY and urge them to oppose this nursing home staffing mandate!
LeadingAge NY has already created an updated cost analysis template that will allow you to determine the costs of this mandate for your nursing home(s) based on your current staffing patterns. Keep in mind that the language uses the PBJ data and the facility’s average daily census on a daily basis, so this will surely impact your costs to cover weekend shifts.
The following talking points can be used to inform your conversations and email to lawmakers. Please be sure to also share the cost analysis provided by the template above. These numbers will be impactful to lawmakers as they begin to consider this legislation.
- This 3.5-hour minimum nurse staffing measure, when broken up between CNAs and RN/LPN hours, will mean RN layoffs in order to reallocate funds to the hiring of more CNAs.
- Nursing homes are already staffing to the best of our ability; we are unable to fill open positions. An underfunded and infeasible mandate will not improve resident care.
- Nursing homes are already financially crippled from the COVID-19 pandemic due to unfunded testing mandates and PPE costs, limited federal relief, and a census that has still not recovered.
- In the midst of the pandemic, the State proceeded with a 1.5% across-the-board Medicaid cut to providers, when many other states increased funding for nursing homes.
- The recently enacted State Budget includes provisions requiring nursing homes to spend set percentages of revenue on resident care and direct care staffing.
- Notably, when New Jersey recently passed their own nursing home staffing hour requirement, their law was attached to a 10% increase to Medicaid rates for nursing homes.
- This unfunded staffing mandate will further push New York’s not-for-profit, financially distressed nursing homes to close or sell to for-profit providers.
- We are also in the midst of a nationwide long-term care workforce crisis. In New York, 60% of all health care job openings are openings for Personal Care Aides, Home Health Aides, and Certified Nurse Aides. The existing workforce and financing simply cannot support an additional minimum staffing hour mandate.
- We need investment in the long-term care workforce to bolster and improve the care of our seniors, not more unfunded (or underfunded) mandates.
- For these reasons, I urge you to oppose this legislation on nursing home staffing hour minimums.
Thank you in advance for your advocacy and please feel free to let us know how your conversations go, and what feedback you get from lawmakers by emailing Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org or filling out this form. We will be sure to keep members apprised of additional updates and action alerts.
2021 National Lobby Day Takeaways
Thank you to all our LeadingAge New York members that took the time to participate in LeadingAge National’s 2021 Virtual Lobby Day! It was a jam-packed day of advocacy, with members and LeadingAge NY staff attending 19 congressional meetings. We met with Senate Majority Leader Schumer’s office and Senator Gillibrand’s office, as well as Congress Members Suozzi, Delgado, Tonko, Bowman, Morelle and more.
During our meetings, we thanked Congress for the relief they have provided thus far to New York and our long-term care providers, however, we also emphasized that due to unwavering cuts to Medicaid, unfunded mandates and the ongoing pandemic, providers are still in dire financial straits. A key note that we shared was that general distribution Provider Relief Funds (PRF) covered only about 38 percent of a typical nursing home’s COVID losses. While targeted PRF has provided additional funding to nursing homes and assisted living providers, such relief represents less than $4 of every $10 in new COVID-related financial impact.
In preparation for our meetings, we developed a New York-specific Federal Issue Brief that consolidated many of LeadingAge National’s talking points and framed the requests through the lens of what providers are experiencing in New York. Members are encouraged to keep up the Federal advocacy effort around key HUD Housing asks and other things that you feel your representatives should be aware of – and feel free to use these linked materials in doing so.
LeadingAge NY Publishes Comprehensive Final Budget Overview
In case you might have missed it, last week LeadingAge NY published our comprehensive final budget overview for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021-22, effective for the period April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022. The final budget includes significant investments to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and home and community-based services (HCBS), as well as other major policy initiatives, including nursing home direct care spending ratios, legalization of adult recreational use of marijuana and mobile sports wagering. Our budget overview reviews these and other key final budget items impacting aging services, long-term/post-acute care (LTPAC) and senior housing providers.
Again, our final budget successes would not have been possible without your engagement in the advocacy process. Thank you for all you have done thus far! Now, we ask members to please stay engaged in advocacy as we move through the remainder of this unprecedented legislative session.
LeadingAge NY Urges Governor to Veto CON/Staff Contracting Legislation
Last week, A.5684-A (Gottfried)/S.4893-A (Rivera) was delivered to the Governor, requiring Executive action by Saturday, April 24th. The bill carries concerns for LeadingAge New York and our membership, as it would place new requirements around the approval of nursing home acquisitions and consolidations. While we support the intent of the bill to ensure that only those individuals and entities that meet high standards of character and competence are approved to operate nursing homes, we are concerned that this bill may delay or prevent consolidations among not-for-profit nursing homes and may delay necessary contractual arrangements for management or staffing services.
LeadingAge New York has sent this letter to the Governor’s office, urging that the bill be vetoed. If members have concerns about this bill, they can still contact the Governor’s office in opposition via this link.
LeadingAge & LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources
LeadingAge NY continues to closely follow all COVID-19 news and we are doing our best to keep members informed of updates, recommendations and guidelines from the Department of Health (DOH).
LeadingAge NY and LeadingAge National Member resources are linked below.
LeadingAge NY Coronavirus Resources
LeadingAge NY COVID-19 Weekly Update calls – Mondays at 11 a.m. Click here to join the call from your computer, android or apple device. Or you can join the call by dialing in: 877 853 5257 (Toll Free); Webinar ID: 852 964 255.
LeadingAge National Coronavirus Resources Page
LeadingAge National Pandemic Playbook
COVID-19 Group in the MyLeadingAge Member Community
Coronavirus Daily Member Update calls – Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Past call recordings are available here and you can register here for future calls.
Contact: Ami Schnauber; 518.867.8854; aschnauber@leadingageny.org
Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org