Budget Revenue Projections, Advocating on Budget Issues, New Bill Introduced, Cuomo's "Drive for $15" and Senate IDC Releases Affordability Plan for Seniors
Budget Update: Revenue Projections
Last week, the Assembly released its Economic and Revenue Report, projecting $552 million more in revenue than the Governor projects. The Senate’s Economic and Revenue Report estimates that the state will collect $498 million more than the Governor has projected.
The release of the legislative revenue reports is a key step in the budget adoption process. The governor, legislative leaders and fiscal aides have until March 1st to develop a consensus forecast for revenue that will form the basis for budget negotiations. Both houses are actively developing their one-house budget resolutions, which will represent their priorities going into budget negotiations. The resolutions are expected to be passed in mid-March.
A strong grassroots advocacy effort over the next two weeks is essential. Our issues must be addressed in at least one of the one-house budget resolutions or they will not be part of the final enacted budget. Below are the key issues we need your advocacy assistance with to ensure they are part of the budget negotiations.
Invest in Senior Housing and Support Services: We are asking lawmakers to invest in affordable housing with support services to provide low-income seniors with access to safe places to live and basic supports in the community, allowing them to age-in-place and delaying or preventing the need for high-cost services funded by Medicaid. Our proposal includes $10 million for a State Resident Advisor Program; a $50 million annual capital investment over the next five years, along with $4.5 million to create and fund a rental assistance component to accelerate development of affordable rental units for seniors.
Use this link to send a letter directly to your elected representatives. Also, you can Tweet, Facebook and email your lawmakers by texting HOUSING to 52886. You can spread the word about our campaign by posting this Senior Advocacy Flier.
Ensure Medicaid and MLTC Rate Adequacy: We are asking lawmakers to reject the Governor’s proposed $23 million in cuts to Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) plan premiums and allocate an additional $90 million to support payment of MLTC premiums that are aligned with the costs of delivering care. With the enrollment of nursing home residents, the expansion of benefits and new wage mandates, the expenses of delivering care have outpaced premium revenue.
Click here to support our efforts by sending a letter to your elected officials, tweeting them or posting a message on their Facebook page.
Reject Transportation Carve-Outs: We are asking lawmakers to reject the proposed carve-out of transportation services from the MLTC benefit package, from Adult Day Health Care Program rates, and from nursing home rates. The change would require that transportation be provided by the state’s contractors who are often unable to deliver the same level of service as the current providers, resulting in lengthy waits, stranded clients, and missed medical appointments.
Click here to support our efforts by sending a letter to your elected officials, tweeting them or posting a message on their Facebook page.
Invest in Adult Care & Assisted Living Services: We are asking lawmakers to increase the state’s Congregate Care Level 3 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) rate for low-income seniors living in Adult Care Facilities (ACFs) and assisted living settings. We are requesting an increase of at least $15 per day to bring the rate up to an adequate level.
Please take the time to advocate on this issue by visiting our SSI Increase Advocacy page to send an email, Tweet or Facebook your lawmakers.
Fully Fund Minimum Wage Increase: We are asking lawmakers to fully fund any increase to the minimum wage. Under the governor’s proposal, nursing homes would incur an additional $600 million cost, and home care/personal care agencies would incur more than $2 billion in additional costs. Because long term care providers rely almost exclusively on public funds to cover their costs of care, any increased wages must be fully paid for in the state budget.
More than 300 minimum wage letters have been sent to lawmakers, with 127 emails sent from advocates in the past week! But, we still only have three Tweets and zero Facebook posts. We need your help to get our message out on social media platforms, where our message can be spread throughout the state and garner even more support. Find our campaign here and don’t forget, to Tweet, Facebook and email your lawmakers by texting MINIMUM WAGE to 52886.
New E-Prescribing Bill Introduced
LeadingAge New York has been working with other associations and lawmakers to advance legislation that would mitigate the impact of e-prescribing for nursing home residents. The new bill, A.9334 (Gottfried)–S.6778 (Hannon), sponsored by health committee chairs Assemblyman Gottfried and Senator Hannon, would exempt in-patient nursing home prescriptions from the e-prescribing mandate.
Regulations mandating electronic prescribing for all medications will go into effect on March 27, 2016. Significant implementation problems exist in the nursing home which, if left unaddressed, could cause medication errors, delays in medication administration, increased hospitalizations or an array of other negative outcomes.
In nursing homes, physicians rely heavily on the nurse to relay clinical information over the phone. For decades, nurses, acting as the agent to the physician, have been authorized to take oral orders from the physician for medications, through the nursing home medication administration system, in order to deliver medications to residents safely and without delay. The purpose of this bill is to allow non-electronic prescriptions to be made through the long-established mechanism of oral prescriptions being submitted by nursing homes for their residents.
Please help us educate lawmakers about the challenges of e-prescribing in the nursing home setting by visiting our campaign, to email, Tweet and Facebook your lawmakers on this issue.
Cuomo’s “Drive for $15” Tour
Last week, Governor Cuomo hit the road in an RV to promote his “Drive for $15” tour, in order to push for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The RV is being funded by the Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice, which raised money, included from unions supporting the raise in minimum wage. Key labor leaders that joined Cuomo included state AFL-CIO President, Mario Cilento, 1199 SEIU President, George Gresham and a handful of elected officials, including Congressman Charles Rangel.
The "Drive for $15" tour started in Manhattan followed by rallies in Long Island and Kingston. The Governor plans to take the RV across the state over the coming weeks to gain support for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Senate IDC Releases Affordability Plan for Seniors
The Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) has released the Seniors First agenda, which is intended to improve quality of life and health care issues for the elderly. (Read the full report here.) The report, which is based on a quality-of-life and affordability survey taken by over 4,500 seniors, recommends:
· maintaining rent protections for seniors and persons with disabilities through the SCRIE and DRIE programs;
· creating the “New York State Secure Choice Savings Program”, a new retirement savings program;
· establishing a State Senior Heating Assistance Program (SHEAP) to assist New York’s seniors in paying their utility costs;
· creation of a Utility Consumer Advocate Office “to give seniors a voice in the utility rate-setting process”;
· incentivizing long-term care insurance purchases;
· protecting seniors from financial exploitation; and
· enacting a Paid Family Leave program “to ensure seniors receive the in-home care they need.”