SFY 2022-23 Budget Work Expected to Continue Over the Weekend
April 1, 2022
SFY 2022-23 Budget Work Expected to Continue Over the Weekend
As we have reported all year, today marks the start to a new State Fiscal Year (SFY) for 2022-23. Although we find ourselves in a new fiscal year, and we were expecting to report by now that a final budget agreement was reached and budget bills passed and signed into law, the State has not yet reached an agreement and budget negotiations are expected to extend into this weekend and Monday.
Budget decisions have largely been delayed due to proposed changes to New York's bail law that end cash bail requirements for many criminal charges. Governor Hochul wants to expand the circumstances in which cash bail is required to include gun charges and alleged repeat offenses as well as changes to laws requiring faster access to evidence during the discovery process. Much of the language under discussion for the changes is technical in nature, but the push is driven by rising voter concerns over crime in the state.
As a result of the contentious debate over bail reform, and it’s taking the spotlight in the final week of budget work, many other budget discussions have taken a back-seat and taken place behind closed doors. This has left some legislators and many stakeholders in the dark as to what a final budget agreement might look like. Never-the-less, legislative leaders and the Governor are in pursuit of a “timely” budget, and hope to begin passing final budget bills on Monday or early next week.
LeadingAge NY continues to monitor all state budget activity and weigh in with key lawmakers. We will be sure to keep members apprised of any noteworthy developments, and will provide a brief budget overview as soon as the Final Health/Mental Health Budget proposal is made available. We will follow our initial budget overview, with a comprehensive final budget summary one-week after the passage of a Final SFY 2022-23 Budget. Stay tuned.
WEEKEND ACTION ALERT: Take Your Final Budget Advocacy to Social Media!
As the State’s final budget negotiations bleed into the weekend, LeadingAge NY strongly encourages our members to take your budget advocacy to all personal and professional social media platforms. Below, you will find suggested messages for each service line and different issue areas.
Please take a moment to share the following social media messages on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any other social media platforms! For each message, be sure to tag your lawmakers and/or the Governor! Twitter handles can be found here; Facebook, Instagram, or other handles should easily be found by visiting Assembly or Senate websites, or by doing a google search.
The below tweets are directed at Governor Hochul’s Twitter account. Please also tag your local legislators, and if all of the “handles” don’t fit in one post, you can post multiple times, swapping out the handles/tags! These draft tweets can also be used on Facebook and other platforms.
Members are also encouraged to tweet at the following lawmakers:
- Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie – @CarlHeastie
- Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins – @AndreaSCousins
Other tips:
- Make sure there is a period “.” before your lawmakers’ tags. This ensures that your tweet or message gets to the general news feed.
- Add a photo, logo or image to your post to increase viewership.
Nursing Home Tweets:
“.@GovKathyHochul MUST provide meaningful funding to NY Nursing Homes in this year’s budget! A 1% Medicaid increase after years of cuts is not enough. Nursing Homes need resources to be able to compete for staff and serve residents. All seniors deserve better. #SupportOurSeniors”
“ALL seniors deserve better funding and support from the state. Nearly 75% of nursing home care is paid for by Medicaid; the rest is mostly Medicare. Better staffing in nursing homes requires better funding than a 1% increase to inadequate rates. #SupportOurSeniors”
“.@GovKathyHochul No funding has been provided to enable nursing homes to meet new staffing mandates, which ignore the reality of the healthcare workforce crisis. We need funding and support for nursing homes, not penalties! We must do better.”
“.@GovKathyHochul NY nursing homes need over 12,000 new nurses and aides to comply with the new 3.5 nurse hour mandate. Homes cannot reach this shared goal of enhanced staffing without a substantial Medicaid increase to recruit them. Please #SupportOurSeniors in this budget!”
In addition – please share LeadingAge NY’s posts on the 3.5 Nursing Home Staffing Requirements! Please “like” the below social media posts, then re-post or share on your own account!
ACF/AL Tweets:
“.@GovKathyHochul State funding is going to Broadway, bars and the Bills, but not for needed COVID relief funding to adult care facilities and assisted living. Don’t leave these residents and staff behind. Please #SupportOurSeniors!”
“.@GovKathyHochul After 14 years without a cost-of-living adjustment, New York’s assisted living programs need more than a 1% increase. Low-income older adults living in these settings deserve better. Please #SupportOurSeniors in the final budget!”
Affordable Senior Housing Tweets:
“Thank you @GovKathyHochul for providing $300M in capital over 5 years for affordable senior housing in this year’s budget. Now, let’s ensure more low-income seniors can stay independent as they age in those homes by funding Resident Assistants! #SupportOurSeniors”
HCBS Tweets:
“.@GovKathyHochul HCBS providers support fair wages for home care workers, but the State should ensure ALL home care agencies are funded in the #NYBudget to carry out a new wage mandate for workers, not just Medicaid providers. #SupportOurSeniors”
ADHC Tweets:
“.@GovKathyHochul ADHC programs were closed for a full year due to COVID-19 and are struggling to provide care due to low Medicaid rates and lack of transportation. I urge you to #SupportOurSeniors and ensure these programs remain available to New Yorkers in this year’s budget!”
Minimum Nursing Home Staffing and 70/40 Requirements in Effect
Last night, the Governor issued an updated Executive Order, 4.7, related to the Statewide Disaster Emergency Due to Healthcare Staffing Shortages in the State of New York. While the EO extends other staffing flexibilities, it explicitly ends the suspensions of penalties for failure to meet the nursing home minimum staffing levels and for failure to meet the requirement that nursing homes spend 70 percent of revenue on direct resident care and 40 percent of revenue on resident-facing staffing. In other words, these mandates are in effect as of today, April 1st.
LeadingAge NY understands that the minimum staffing requirements are impossible for most to meet right now, and this is an incomprehensible step. We are working to obtain more information, as the Department of Health has not yet finalized regulations implementing these statutes. In addition, we are working to provide tools to assist members in requesting a mitigation of penalties; however, we caution that the proposed minimum hours regulations require the imposition of a penalty even if the Department finds that extraordinary circumstances or an acute labor shortage exist.
LeadingAge NY will be filing a lawsuit. We will provide more information shortly on next steps and ask that nursing homes willing to be named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit contact Karen Lipson at klipson@leadingageny.org.
We know how hard you are working to recruit and retain staff, and we appreciate how frustrating this news is. We will keep members apprised of developments in this matter and will communicate the negative impacts this decision will have on your organizations, your staff, and the people you serve. Additionally, we are continuing to advocate for adequate funding for nursing homes in the state budget and will notify members of any new developments as they arise. Thank you for all that you’re doing for residents and staff.
CEO of LeadingAge NY Featured on WAMC News
In anticipation of the expiration of Executive Order 4.6, which temporarily delayed the enforcement of two nursing home staffing mandates enacted in 2021, LeadingAge NY President and CEO Jim Clyne sat down with Karen Dewitt of WAMC Northeast Public Radio to discuss the nursing home workforce crisis. The radio news outlet has a robust audience in the greater capital region and parts of western Massachusetts.
The piece opens with a review of a press conference that was held last week by SEIU 1199 and Attorney General Leticia James, which called for the immediate enforcement of the recently enacted nursing home staffing mandates – the 3.5 minimum nursing hours requirement and the “70/40” direct care spending requirement. Dewitt explains that the implementation of these mandates has been delayed since January 1, 2022, and that “nursing home owners say they need the start-date delayed even longer…. Because they can’t find the employees needed to be in compliance”.
The 4-minute radio news spot goes on to cite LeadingAge New York’s recent analysis of Payroll Based Journal data filed with the Federal government. Clyne is quoted, “[the data] shows that if we were going to comply with this requirement of 3.5 hours per resident, per day, that we would need 12,000 workers”. That number of readily qualified employees just doesn’t exist.
A recording of the news piece which aired on Wednesday, March 30th, along with written copy, is available here. LeadingAge NY and our members were also quoted in several other news articles that were published this week, including the Buffalo News, Rochester First, The Post-Journal, and Politico.
ACTION ALERT: Advocacy Letters for Families of ACF/AL and Nursing Home Residents
There is still time for families and residents of adult care facilities, assisted living, and nursing homes to weigh in on the State Budget process! Please take a moment to share the below letters with your residents and families TODAY and encourage them to send letters over the weekend. These letters can be sent with just a few clicks!
- 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! 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.
New Budget Advocacy Materials for ACF/AL and Nursing Home Staffing
Over these last few days of budget negotiations, LeadingAge NY has created two new budget advocacy materials to draw attention to the needs of aging New Yorkers and the providers that serve them. A new budget issue brief on adult care facilities and assisted living (ACF/AL) points out that the State Budget is poised to provide financial assistance to nearly every sector, except assisted living. The brief points to the budget actions we urge the State to take, as well as all of the added costs that ACFs have been left with due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new ACF/AL issue brief is available here and was shared with the entire Legislature earlier this week.
In addition, LeadingAge NY created a new issue brief on the 3.5 nurse hours staffing mandate that officially came into effect today. The new brief points to LeadingAge NY’s most recent analysis of the staff that the State’s nursing homes would need in order to comply with the staffing hours mandate. One version of the brief was shared with the entire Legislature, as well as central staff, last Friday. The most recent version of the brief is available here and was shared with the entire Legislature again yesterday afternoon.
LeadingAge NY Participates in National Lobby Day in D.C.
This week, LeadingAge National held its 2022 Lobby Day and Congressional visits in D.C. During the lobby days and LeadingAge Leadership Summit, LeadingAge NY and our members attended four in-person congressional meetings with Representatives Higgins, Stefanik, Tenney, and Reed. During the meetings, attendees informed lawmakers of the significant challenges aging services providers are contending with back home in New York. Discussions were largely focused on the lack of adequate funding for long-term care and the challenges in attracting and retaining the workforce we need to best serve our older adults.
Following our advocacy work in D.C., and upon the completion of the State Budget cycle, LeadingAge NY plans to set up a series of virtual congressional meetings, which we will aim to schedule over the coming months. Once meetings are scheduled, we will invite members from across the state to participate in meetings with your congressional representatives. If you have distinct interest in meeting with your congress person as soon as possible, please reach out to Sarah Daly at sdaly@leadingageny.org to get a meeting scheduled.
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.
Contact: Sarah Daly; 518.867.8845; sdaly@leadingageny.org