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Legislative Bulletin: Advocacy Day Countdown

Advocacy Day Issue Briefs Now Available

The Feb. 6th LeadingAge NY/Adult Day Health Care Council/Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State Advocacy Day is now just four days away! If you haven’t already, there is still time to register and set up meetings with your legislators or their top staff. As lawmakers begin to develop their one-house budget priorities, they need to know how your organization and those you serve will be impacted.

On Thursday afternoon, the three associations held a prep call for all Advocacy Day attendees to go over our materials, event logistics, and questions. LeadingAge NY’s handouts, which include our 2018 Budget Initiatives document and service line-specific issue briefs, were distributed prior to the call. They have since been updated and are now available on our website:

There is a lot of information in these documents, so we encourage you to just utilize those that speak to your concerns. The 2018 Budget Initiatives brief highlights our main message that New York’s rapidly growing senior population continues to face care and service gaps, a problem that would be worsened by the Executive Budget’s proposed $407 million in spending reductions to long-term services and supports. If you are not able to come to Albany on Tuesday, please schedule meetings with your legislators in their district offices and ensure they know your concerns as they head into budget negotiations. Lawmakers are typically in their district offices on Thursdays and Fridays and will be on recess from Feb. 14th to 26th.

Advocacy Day attendees who were unable to join the prep call should review the following logistics:

  • We will be in Meeting Room 4 on the Empire State Plaza in Albany. Parking information can be accessed here, and a map of the Empire State Plaza Indoor Concourse is available here. LeadingAge NY, the Adult Day Health Care Council, and the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State will have signs directing attendees to the Meeting Room.
  • Registration and breakfast will begin at 8 am. We will be set up outside the entrance to Meeting Room 4 and have nametags and printed handouts available for attendees.
  • Attendees may leave their coats and belongings in the Meeting Room during legislative meetings.
  • Lunch will be served from 12 to 1 pm.
  • The Meeting Room is reserved until 5 pm.

LeadingAge NY is also asking attendees to be active on social media in the lead-up to, during, and after Advocacy Day. Posting about your plans to attend Advocacy Day, sharing posts and pictures with your legislators on the day itself, and then following up on Facebook and Twitter afterward will be very powerful in our budget advocacy and will also help you engage your social media followers. Be sure to join LeadingAge NY and other organizations in using the hashtag #SupportOurSeniors!

Action Alert: Urge Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to Co-Sponsor the EMPOWER Care Act

Your federal advocacy is needed to help safeguard a program that has helped more than 75,000 seniors and individuals with disabilities transition from nursing home to community settings. Money Follows the Person (MFP), one of the longest-running and most successful Medicaid demonstrations, has proven to improve individuals’ quality of life and reduce Medicaid and Medicare expenditures by approximately 23 percent. The program expired on Sept. 30, 2016, however, and states are now running out of funding, transitioning fewer individuals to the community, and losing progress and momentum on shifting systems from institutional to more cost-effective home and community-based services.

At the end of last year, Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the EMPOWER Care Act (S.2227), legislation that would improve and extend the program for five years. Please urge Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to co-sponsor this bill today, so that MFP can continue to help improve quality of life for our most vulnerable populations. LeadingAge National and LeadingAge NY greatly appreciate your efforts.

LeadingAge NY Submits Housing Budget Hearing Testimony

This week, following last Wednesday’s Joint Budget Hearing on Housing, LeadingAge NY submitted written testimony outlining the need for a $10 million, five-year investment in a Senior Housing Resident Service Advisor Program. Under our proposal, funding would be used to support service advisors in 140 senior housing properties statewide, with advisors focusing specifically on linking residents to the services they need to remain healthy in their communities. Through connecting seniors to outside health, wellness, and other supports, service advisors would help delay or prevent reliance on high-cost Medicaid services.

LeadingAge NY’s testimony can be accessed here, and you can send your legislators a pre-written letter, tweet, or Facebook post urging their support for the service advisor proposal here. Be sure they know how important it is to support the healthy aging of our growing senior population!

Governor Cuomo Sets April 24th Special Election Date

It was reported this week that Governor Cuomo will set Tues., April 24th as the date for special elections to fill 11 vacancies in the Legislature, including two in the 32nd and 37th Senate Districts. The Senate elections are particularly significant for Democrats, who are counting on a pair of victories to regain a numerical majority in the chamber. A tentative deal between the mainline Democratic Conference and the eight-member Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) to reunify following budget season is contingent upon Democrats winning both seats.

Alex Azar Confirmed as HHS Secretary

Finally, the Senate last week confirmed President Trump’s second Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, by a vote of 55 to 43. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Azar spent a decade as a senior executive at pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company and served for two years as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. The Secretary’s four main priorities are reportedly to “help curb the high cost of prescription drugs, make health insurance more affordable and available, continue bipartisan efforts to focus Medicare payments on quality, and confront the growing opioid addiction epidemic.”

Contacts:

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

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