Health/Medicaid Budget Hearing Coming Up!
Health/Medicaid Budget Hearing
LeadingAge New York will be testifying at the Health and Medicaid Budget Hearing on Monday, Jan. 25. We will be focusing on the impact that minimum wage will have on providers, the need for a rate increase to SSI Congregate Care Level 3, Medicaid rate adequacy, transportation carve-outs and infrastructure investments for long term and post-acute care providers. We will share a copy of our testimony with you next week.
The public hearing will start at 9:30 and you are able to watch the hearing live here.
Next Up: Housing Budget Hearing on Mon., Feb. 1st; set to start at 9:30.
Governor Advances DFS Nominee
Yesterday, Governor Cuomo nominated former aide Maria Vullo to be the Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services. She took the place of Ben Lawsky who stepped down in June.
The New York State Department of Financial Services is responsible for protecting consumers and markets from fraud and financial crises and is looking to improve regulations of financial services.
Vullo, a two-time state Court of Appeals nominee, is of counsel and has been a partner for 20 years at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. She has over 25 years of practice in business litigation and investigations and this includes a combination of public and private sector experience; which is crucial to take on her new role as head of the Department of Financial Services. Over her career, she has dedicated herself to significant pro bono and non-profit causes. Additionally, Vullo’s experience includes real estate, health care, insurance, tax, consumer protection, bankruptcy, antitrust, constitutional and environmental law.
In 2010, Vullo oversaw the Economic Justice Division in the Office of the New York State Attorney General, under Cuomo.
Vullo is very involved in protecting women’s rights and she is a recognized leader. She previously won $745M for a woman that was abused by soldiers in the Bosnian War.
The State Senate must confirm her nomination, but Cuomo seems to favor candidates he knows on a personal basis.
Staffing Ratios Advances in the Assembly
Yesterday, Assemblywoman Gunther’s “safe staffing for quality care act” bill A.8580 was advanced to the Assembly Codes Committee. Last year, Assemblyman Gottfried carried the bill and it was advanced to the Assembly Codes and then advanced to Assembly Ways and Means. Just under six months later, Assemblywoman Gunther was named the prime sponsor, where it did not advance.
When the bill was brought up for a vote during the Assembly Health Committee meeting yesterday, Assemblymembers Schimminger, Galef, Goodell, Walter and Garbarino voted in the negative. If any of these members are in your district, we encourage you to thank them for their efforts in opposing this bill.
LeadingAge New York has been encouraging members to be involved in our advocacy efforts in order to oppose the nurse staffing ratios bill. To date, we have had 123 individuals email legislators and Governor Cuomo, opposing nurse staffing ratios. Thank you to all members who have helped in our advocacy campaign, but we can do more! We urge anyone who hasn’t taken action to do so today. Those who have, please take the time to visit our Advocacy Page again, and oppose nurse staffing ratios by posting on Facebook or Tweeting to legislators and the Governor. Tweet, FaceBook and email your lawmakers by texting RATIOS to 52886
Minimum Wage
LeadingAge NY has joined with other state-wide health care organization to estimate the fiscal impact any minimum wage increase will have on health care providers. Based on the best currently available data, our preliminary estimate is that the provision would increase the cost for health care providers in these sectors by a conservative estimate of $3 Billion. Nursing homes would realize a cost of $600 million and home care/personal care would realize a whopping $1.72 billion cost. The associations have been meeting with legislative fiscal staff and the Division of Budget to make sure they know that absent a substantial increase in Medicaid reimbursement, this could force providers to cut direct care staff, threaten the viability of many facilities and adversely affect access to high quality services.
We know a potential increase in minimum wage without additional Medicaid funding could be catastrophic to you. We need your help to ensure that our legislative representatives fully the understand the implications. Unfortunately, we have had only 26 people email their legislators and the Governor. We need more grassroots advocacy on this issue now. We strongly urge everyone to get on our website and advocate on this issue. Our minimum wage campaign needs more support. Tweet, FaceBook and email your lawmakers by texting MINIMUM WAGE to 52886
Advocacy Day Update
If you care about the increase in minimum wage, infrastructure investments, Medicaid rate adequacy or any other issues coming up in this 2016 legislative session, we strongly encourage you to join us for Advocacy Day scheduled for Tues., Feb. 9. You can register for Advocacy Day here.
Join us for a conference call Thurs. Feb. 4th to discuss our advocacy message, answer questions and prepare for Advocacy Day.