Legislative Bulletin: LeadingAge NY Takes Budget Advocacy to the Press
March 25, 2022
LeadingAge NY Takes Budget Advocacy to the Press
With less than a week left until a State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2022-23 Final Budget is due, over the last few days LeadingAge NY ramped up its budget advocacy across all fronts – including the press. A large focus of recent press work has been on highlighting the workforce needs of nursing homes and assisted living providers in light of the Legislature’s proposal to provide Fair Pay for Home Care.
In a Buffalo News article posted Thursday morning, Jim Clyne, President and CEO of LeadingAge NY, was quoted pointing out that, “the dedicated staff who work in long-term care deserve better pay across all settings. Raising wages for one type of provider and not the others will make staff shortages even worse for those providers that are left out.”
Then on Thursday night, the Times Union wrote a piece prompted by a letter that LeadingAge NY sent to Attorney General Leticia James, asking that she re-consider her position in calling for the immediate enforcement of new nursing home staffing requirements. The article quotes the LeadingAge NY letter itself, which reads, "There is nothing our not-for-profit and public nursing home members would like more than to have ample staff and be able to pay them well." The article goes on to report that nursing homes’ ability to pay competitive wages and recruit workers relies on the state’s Medicaid program.
The letter to the Attorney General and the conversation around looming nursing home staffing mandates also attracted press coverage from Politico and McKnight’s, both quoting Clyne. LeadingAge NY intends to keep up our press work and remain a part of the public dialogue as legislators and the Governor continue their work on negotiating a final budget agreement.
ACTION ALERT: Encourage Families and Colleagues to Call State Lawmakers TODAY!
We are one week away from the Legislature reaching a Final FY 2022-23 State Budget Agreement. With the final budget due to be passed by the Legislature by next Friday, April 1st, it is critical that our members join us in keeping the pressure on lawmakers, urging them to provide proper funding and support to New York’s non-profit and aging services providers.
It is certain that lawmakers are hearing from all sectors on all kinds of issues. We need to ensure that the needs of long-term care providers still recovering from the pandemic remain front and center as lawmakers reach a final budget decision.
LeadingAge NY urges ALL members to CALL YOUR STATE SENATOR, ASSEMBLY MEMBER AND THE GOVERNOR TODAY and encourage your colleagues, board members and resident families to do the same!
Even if you’ve spoken to legislators several times since January, it is critical that you call your State Senator, Assembly Member, and the Governor AGAIN. We expect that legislators and their staff will be ramping up their budget work over the weekend and into next week so NOW is a key time to remind them of our budget asks and why they are so critical to the care, well-being and quality of life for aging New Yorkers.
TAKE ACTION:
- CALL YOUR LAWMAKERS TODAY using the service line-specific talking points provided in the March 18th issue of Legislative Bulletin. The service-line specific points can be easily found when you visit this link and scroll down. Members can find their lawmakers’ contact information here.
- Encourage your board members and colleagues to make phone calls as well! Even if they reached out to lawmakers earlier in the budget process, it is critical they do so again during this last phase of the process.
- For nursing homes and assisted living program (ALP) providers: Use this new family advocacy letter to get your network of family advocates engaged in our budget advocacy! LeadingAge NY has created a resident/family advocacy letter that can be sent with just a few clicks. This letter in particular is focused on the need for enhanced Medicaid funding for long-term care providers. We strongly encourage members to educate families on your workforce and funding challenges and ask that they join us in urging the State to prioritize the care of older adults living in nursing homes and ALPs.
- For ACF/AL providers in need of COVID-relief: Use this new family advocacy letter to get your network of family advocates engaged in our budget advocacy! This letter in particular is focused on the need covid-relief funding for ACF/AL providers, who have largely been left out of proposed state budget investments. We strongly encourage members to educate families on your workforce and funding challenges and ask that they join us in urging the State to prioritize the care of older adults living in adult care facilities.
- Check out the Legislature’s list of Budget Conference Committees. If you recognize lawmakers who sit on the General Budget Committee (first page) or the Health Budget Committee (Cycle C), please be sure to call them and relay our talking points!
- Reach out to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org if you would like more specific recommendations on how best to engage in budget advocacy at this final stage of the process. Also, please let us know if you receive any feedback from legislative offices!
Thank you for your advocacy during these critical last few days of budget negotiations!
LeadingAge NY Writes the Attorney General on Nursing Home Staffing
On Thursday morning, LeadingAge New York President and CEO Jim Clyne sent a letter to New York State Attorney General Leticia James, asking that she join LeadingAge NY in urging the Governor and the Legislature to make available sufficient funding in the state budget to support the long-term care workforce in all settings, including nursing homes.
Additionally, the letter explains why LeadingAge NY is seeking a delay in the enforcement of nursing home minimum staffing requirements. An analysis recently conducted by our policy team estimates, conservatively, that nursing homes would have to hire more than 12,000 nurses and aides to comply with New York’s recently enacted 3.5 minimum nursing hours requirements. In the letter, Clyne points out that providers need time to ramp up hiring and get 12,000 new employees licensed and certified in order to comply with the new mandate.
The inspiration for the letter came from a press conference that Attorney General James held alongside 1199SEIU on Monday. During the press conference, James called for stronger protections for nursing home workers and reiterated some of the findings from the report released by her office in January 2021 on nursing home COVID-19 response. She also called for the Legislature to include funding for nursing home worker wage increases and nursing home capital needs in the final budget. She expressed that the funding that has been proposed thus far is a good start, but is “not enough,” and that there was a great deal more to be done to improve the care and conditions in nursing homes.
National Lobby Days Set for Next week
LeadingAge National is hosting its Leadership Summit next week, March 28-30, in Washington D.C. Paired with the Summit, National is hosting it’s in-person lobby days and congressional visits. LeadingAge New York will be attending several congressional meetings during the Summit on our members’ behalf, and we will likely be engaging in some virtual congressional meetings in the weeks thereafter.
In preparation for the in-person lobby days, National held an in-depth advocate training on Tuesday that provided an overview of what is happening on Capitol Hill, important meeting talking points, as well as tips and tricks for hosting a successful meeting and lobby day logistics. For those that missed the lobby day training but want to hear the latest news from the nation’s capital as it relates to aging services and advocacy talking points, a recording of the webinar is available here. Additionally, LeadingAge National’s 2022 Policy Priorities document, which will be shared in meetings with members of Congress next week is available here.
Keep the Pressure on State Lawmakers - Send LTC Budget Letters TODAY!
As we find ourselves in the final weeks of state budget activity, it is critical that we keep the pressure on lawmakers and remind them of the budget requests that are most critical to the sustainability of non-profit long-term care and aging services providers. Using the below links, members can easily send digital advocacy letters to their State Senator, Assembly Member, and the Governor with just a few clicks!
Please use the links below to send messages to your legislators and the Governor TODAY! Even if you have already sent the below letters, please take a moment to do so again! Please also be sure to share these links with your colleagues and board members to expand our advocacy reach.
Invest in High Quality Nursing Home Care in This Year’s Budget
Invest in ACF/AL Providers and Workforce in This Year’s Budget
Provide Adequate Reimbursement and Investment to HCBS
Ensure Access to Safe and Affordable Senior Housing in this Year’s Budget
Oppose Competitive Procurement of Medicaid MLTC Plans
Support Adult Day Health Care in This Year’s Budget
Urge Congress to Fund Provider Relief Program
LeadingAge National needs our help to ensure that there is enough Federal pandemic relief funds for aging services providers as the pandemic continues. While Congress allocated $178 billion for Provider Relief Funds during the pandemic, most of this money has already been spent and providers have only been reimbursed for a small portion of the financial cost they have paid from the coronavirus pandemic. Providers have continued to struggle financially and if additional funds are not approved by Congress, there is a chance that this financial lifeline for LeadingAge members could cease to exist.
We need Congress to replenish the Provider Relief Fund account with at least $23 billion as part of its next COVID relief package. This assistance is needed to help providers weather the pandemic storm. Aging service providers need the $23 billion restored to the Provide Relief Fund.
CLICK HERE to send a message to your Congressional offices and urge them to provide more provider relief TODAY!
Additionally, members can click here to read an article on the status of payments from the Provider Relief Fund including Phase 4. The article includes a link to a letter Katie Smith Sloan sent to Congress last week asking that they replenish the funds.
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.
*Please Note* - There will be no LeadingAge National Coronavirus Update Calls next week (March 28 or 30) due to the LeadingAge Leadership Summit being held in D.C. Calls will resume on Monday, April 4th.
Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org