Legislative Bulletin: Health/Medicaid Budget Hearing Recap

Health/Medicaid Budget Hearing Recap

On Thursday, Ami Schnauber, LeadingAge NY’s Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy, presented testimony at the Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Health/Medicaid. The testimony focused on a number of our concerns with this year’s proposed budget – namely, that it offers little opportunity or investments for LTPAC providers and plans, while imposing new cuts, costs, and mandates. Among the topics we addressed were:

The lack of DSRIP investment in LTPAC and aging services providers;
Medicaid and MLTC rate adequacy;
Nursing home bed hold payments;
The need for an SSI increase for adult care facilities;
Senior housing capital and funding for service coordination; and
Workforce shortages.

Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker and New York State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson were the first to provide testimony and answered legislators’ questions for over three hours. Among the highlights:

Asm. Andrew Raia communicated his concerns with the nursing home bed hold cuts.
Sen. Gustavo Rivera expressed a desire to have more of the $500 million of Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program funding allocated to community based providers.
Senate Health Committee Chair Kemp Hannon stated that long term care is a growing crisis in the State and that the Medicaid global cap needs to be re-examined.
Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried questioned Dr. Zucker and Director Helgerson on the issue of MLTC eligibility. There is language in the Article VII bill stating that patients may not receive more than 120 days of Medicaid home care except through MLTC, but those who are not “nursing home eligible” may not enroll in MLTC. Asm. Gottfried was concerned about how the State would accommodate patients who need more than 120 days of home care but are not “nursing home eligible.”
Sen. Leroy Comrie laid out his concerns with the Governor’s proposal to consolidate 39 public health initiatives in a pooled appropriation. LeadingAge NY recently signed onto a letter urging the rejection of this proposal. If the proposed consolidation impacts you, please share this letter with your representatives and ask them to oppose it.

The entire Health/Medicaid budget hearing, which lasted over 10 hours, can be viewed here. Ami’s testimony begins six hours and nine minutes in. LeadingAge NY’s written testimony is also available here.

LeadingAge NY Testifying at Today’s Housing Budget Hearing

John Broderick, LeadingAge NY’s Senior Policy Analyst, will be providing testimony at this morning’s Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Housing. Stuart Kaplan, CEO of Selfhelp Community Services, will be testifying as well. The hearing can be streamed live here. LeadingAge NY is advocating for the State 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. This would allow these seniors to “age in place” and delay or prevent the need for high-cost Medicaid services. Specifically, we are asking the Legislature to accept the Governor’s proposed $125 million for senior housing capital, but create a dedicated Affordable Senior Housing with Services Program. Additionally, LeadingAge NY is recommending the appropriation of $10 million for a Resident Service Coordinator Program, to enhance service coordination in existing and new senior housing. Service coordination will allow residents to remain in their homes as they grow older and frailer, connecting them to outside health, wellness, and other supports.

Budget Negotiations Ramping Up After Recess

Following a weeklong recess from Feb. 20^th to 27^th, lawmakers will return to Albany to continue budget negotiations. As we reported last week, revenue consensus is expected on or before March 1^st, and one-house budget bills are slated to be passed by March 13^th. These are critical weeks, and your legislators need to know your priorities as they develop their one-house budget priorities. They will be in their district offices all next week – call today and set up meetings with them to discuss your budget concerns!

As the Legislature embarks on negotiations, we ask that you take action on some of our top budget priorities:

Thank you for your efforts!

TBI/NHTD Managed Care Carve-Out Bill on Senate Calendar

Advocacy action alert! S.1870 (Hannon), one of LeadingAge NY’s priority bills, has been placed on the Senate Floor Calendar for Tues., Feb. 28^th. We strongly support this legislation, which would allow individuals with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) or who qualify for nursing home diversion and transition (NHTD) Medicaid waiver services to continue to receive such services outside of managed care programs. There are no cost savings associated with moving TBI/NHTD into managed care. Given the significant programmatic changes absorbed by Medicaid Managed Care and Managed Long Term Care plans in recent years, we believe that the interests of all stakeholders would be best served by focusing on current populations and benefits.

Please call your Senator today and urge him or her to support this bill when it comes up for a vote.

Bill Requiring RNs in Assisted Living Removed from Assembly Health Committee Agenda

Thanks to strong advocacy efforts, A.2360 (Gottfried), legislation requiring a registered nurse on staff at facilities certified for enhanced assisted living or special needs assisted living, did not receive enough votes to advance from the Assembly Health Committee and was removed from the committee agenda. Despite this victory, our work is not done; we need to continue to oppose this bill. Click here to access LeadingAge NY’s opposition memo.

Leadership Changes at HCR

Lastly, Governor Cuomo this week appointed Jamie Rubin, Commissioner of New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), as his new Director of State Operations. Rubin had led HCR since June 2015. He will be replaced by RuthAnne Visnauskas, the agency’s Executive Deputy Commissioner for Housing Development.

Contacts:

Ami Schnauber, aschnauber@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8854

Jeff Diamond, jdiamond@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8821