Legislative Bulletin: LeadingAge NY Prepares for 2022 Advocacy Days and Health Budget Hearing
February 4, 2022
LeadingAge NY Prepares to Testify at Health Budget Hearing
The Legislature is scheduled to host its Joint Legislative Hearing on the Health/Medicaid Budget on Tuesday, Feb. 8th. During the hearing, members of each chambers’ health committees, as well as members of Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees will receive testimony from state agencies, stakeholders and the public on the Executive Budget Proposal as it relates to healthcare.
LeadingAge NY has already submitted written testimony to the relevant committees, as well as a request to provide oral testimony on the day of the hearing. Members interested in watching the hearing can do so by tuning in on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. The full hearing will be streamed live on the Assembly website here. For those that might miss it, we will provide relevant clips and recordings of the hearings in next week’s Legislative Bulletin.
Everything You Need to Prepare for Budget Advocacy
We are less than a week away from our 2022 Advocacy Days and time is of the essence! Our “official” advocacy days are set for Feb. 9th, 10th, and 11th; however, we also have some great budget advocacy meetings scheduled for the following week, Feb. 14-18. If you would like to take part in budget advocacy meetings, but have not yet gotten started, you can still CLICK HERE to register and participate in budget advocacy.
Even if you are doing all of your own advocacy and do not need assistance from LeadingAge NY, please still register at the above link. Registering will allow LeadingAge NY to track our advocacy impact and ensure that we are reaching all key legislative leaders and members that sit on key committees such as health, aging, housing, and labor.
Our 2022 Virtual Advocacy Days website has everything you need to know about how to engage in budget advocacy, including draft budget issue briefs, tips on how to schedule and conduct a successful legislative meeting, and Zoom graphics that can be used as a virtual background during meetings. Final versions of budget issue briefs will be posted on the website, at the same link, by 10 AM Monday morning.
On our Advocacy Day website, members can also find a recording of our Budget and Advocacy Day Prep Call which was held on Feb. 3rd. During the call, our LeadingAge NY policy team reviewed our budget advocacy materials, the message we are trying to send to the Legislature, and remaining advocacy day logistics on how members can get involved.
PLEASE NOTE - it is not too late to schedule budget meetings with your lawmakers! Members are strongly encouraged to reach out to legislative offices for a meeting, and/or request assistance in setting up meetings as soon as possible! If you would like assistance in setting up your meetings, please simply indicate that preference on the registration form linked above.
Thank you for all your participation in advocacy. We are sincerely excited to participate in some great member meetings with lawmakers next week. And we are excited to work with you to ensure that our message is heard, loud and clear.
Tell Us Who You Are Meeting With!
LeadingAge New York knows that many of our members are strong advocates within their regions. We greatly appreciate your diligent advocacy work to ensure that lawmakers understand the significant workforce and financial challenges long-term care providers are experiencing as you try to provide the best quality of care and quality of life possible to residents and older adults.
If you have been meeting with lawmakers this year, or have meetings scheduled for February, please take a moment to tell us who you are meeting with! If you have been scheduling meetings for our advocacy days, please send your full schedule of meetings to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org. If you have been having conversations with legislative offices over the phone or email, or have meetings set up for later this month, please update Sarah on those activities as well. Members can also opt to use our Advocacy Engagement Form to update us on your activities.
Understanding our membership’s advocacy activities is critical to ensure that our budget message is reaching everyone that it needs to. It also ensures that our advocacy is effective and efficient, allowing us to properly follow up with lawmaker offices to re-enforce the message we are aiming to convey to the Legislature.
LeadingAge NY Submits Housing Budget Testimony
The Legislature held its Joint Legislative Hearing on the Housing Budget on Monday, Jan. 31st. In attendance were Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger, Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chair Helene Weinstein, Senate Finance Committee Ranker Thomas O'Mara and Assembly Ways and Means Committee Ranker Edward Ra . Also in attendance were Assembly Housing Committee Chair Steven Cymbrowitz, members of the Assembly Housing Committee, Senate Housing Chair Kavanagh, and other members of the Senate Housing Committee.
The hearing was largely focused on the testimony of NYS Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas. Common themes throughout the hearing included The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the federal "Build Back Better plan", the state's housing and rental crisis, storm recovery funds, the electrification of buildings, and the proposed replacement of the 421-a tax abatement program.
LeadingAge NY was unable to provide oral testimony for this hearing, as this year the Legislature limited virtual testimony to only one hearing per organization. However, LeadingAge NY did submit written testimony to all participating committees. Our testimony highlights the increasing demand for affordable senior housing, as well as the need for low-cost supportive programs for older adults such as our proposed Affordable Senior Housing Resident Assistance Program. If you missed the hearing but would like to listen to the housing budget discussion, an archived recording is available here.
ACTION ALERT: Oppose Competitive Procurement of Medicaid MLTC Plans!
The State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2022-23 Executive Budget proposes to require the Department of Health (DOH) to conduct a competitive procurement for almost all Medicaid managed care plans, including partially-capitated managed long term care (MLTC) plans and integrated Medicare/Medicaid MAP plans. The proposal would impose a limit of 5 on the number of each type of plan in each (yet to be defined) region.
This proposal will limit choices available to Medicaid beneficiaries and will cause widespread disruption in consumers’ established relationships with providers, as plans that are not selected will have to close, and consumers will be shifted to a more limited number of plans that may or may not contract with their chosen providers. The transition of large numbers of consumers to new plans will also have negative impacts on providers, as they will be forced to seek new network contracts, new authorizations for services, and solidify new billing and payment processes with the selected plans.
LeadingAge NY believes that this proposal will not only significantly narrow the Medicaid managed care market in New York, but will also shift the State’s managed care contracts to large national or statewide insurers that do not specialize in high-needs populations. This will be detrimental to both consumers and providers.
Please join us in urging the Governor to remove this MLTC procurement proposal from the Executive Budget through the 30-day amendment process. The Governor’s 30-day amendments will be due on Feb. 17th, which gives us a small window of time to urge for this action to be taken.
Please take a moment to send this digital advocacy letter directly to the Governor’s office TODAY. If you would like to edit the letter at all or add the name of your organization, you can easily edit the letter’s content via the text box at the bottom of the page. Additionally, we recommend taking a moment to call the Governor’s office, at 1-518-474-8390, and ask that this proposal be withdrawn.
Congressional Redistricting Plans Set to be Challenged in Court
The Democratic-led chambers of the state Legislature in New York on Wednesday gave final approval for redrawn district lines for New York's congressional seats. The Assembly approved the maps 103-45. In the state Senate, the plan was approved in a 43-20 vote. The once-a-decade redistricting process had been thrown to the Legislature this year after a commission, created in 2014 through a constitutional amendment, failed to reach an agreement on how the maps for New York's federal and state representation should look.
Democratic lawmakers released a final version of the maps on Sunday, and critics in both good-government organizations and Republicans have alleged the new lines favor Democratic incumbents and candidates.
Republican state Senator Tom O'Mara said the maps were released with "absolutely no public comment on these bills that are before us. Now we're being rushed to vote on it." Democratic Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris countered there was simply not enough time to hold a series of public hearings on the legislative-drawn lines given the political calendar. Petitioning for candidates to get access to the ballot begins in March and party primaries are held in June.
As was predicted by many given the partisan debate on the process, a legal challenge was filed to reject the changes just hours after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the new maps into law. The suit filed against the new lines for the U.S. House of Representatives' seats in New York could provide the first test for the state constitutional amendment approved as a safeguard against partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts.
LeadingAge & LeadingAge New York 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
COVID-19 Group in the MyLeadingAge Member Community
LeadingAge National Coronavirus Policy Updates – Mondays and Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. Past call recordings are available here and you can register here for future calls.
Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org