Legislative Bulletin: One-House Budget Proposals Expected Next Week
March 10, 2023
One-House Budgets Expected Next Week - Send Letters TODAY!
LeadingAge New York expects one-house budget proposals to be released some time before March 15th, but they could come out as early as this weekend. As a reminder, the one-house budgets amend the Executive Budget Proposal to reflect the priority funding actions of each house. Then, once both the Senate and the Assembly release their proposals, the Governor and the two houses will come together to commence three-way budget negotiations to come to a Final 2023-24 Budget agreement by April 1st.
LeadingAge New York has crafted the below service-line specific digital advocacy letters to help us keep the pressure on legislators for the remainder of 2023-24 budget discussions. Each letter takes only a minute or two to send. Simply enter your information to automatically send an email to the Governor and your State Senator and Assembly Member!
Please use the below links to send messages to your legislators and the Governor TODAY!
- Nursing Home Budget Letters – several letters available for family members, staff, residents, etc.
- Affordable Senior Housing Budget Letter
- ACF/ALP & Low-Income Seniors Budget Letter
- ALR Budget Letter
- Home & Community-Based Services Budget Letter
- Managed Long-Term Care Budget Letter
- Adult Day Health Care Budget Letter
- CCRC Budget Letter
After you send your letters, we strongly encourage members to share these links with residents, families, staff, board members and volunteers. This is a simple and easy way to amplify our message!
LeadingAge NY Statewide Day of Action to Eliminate HERDS Survey
Yesterday, on the three-year anniversary of the start of the daily HERDS survey for nursing homes and adult care facilities, LeadingAge New York launched a statewide day of action, urging the Governor and Department of Health to finally eliminate the daily HERDS reporting requirement. The campaign included a digital advocacy letter, a phone call script, and a LinkedIn post for members to like and share.
We launched the campaign at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning, and by the end of the day, nearly 900 people had sent emails to the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and the Department of Health. As of this writing on Friday afternoon, over 2,900 letters have been sent to state officials urging for the elimination of the HERDS survey.
We know how burdensome, tedious and wasteful this survey has become for our members and we thank you for your advocacy with the Governor and the Department of Health. Members are encouraged to continue to send digital letters on the issue until we see some action from the Department.
Amplify our Social Media Message of the Week!
As we await the release of the one-house budget proposals, all LeadingAge NY members are strongly encouraged to post the below message on their personal and professional social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.):
Did you know that Medicaid pays for the nursing home care of over 60K residents in NY? Did you know that the rate hasn't been updated since 2007? Neighboring states PA, NJ, etc. have increased rates – it’s time for NY to do the same with a 20% increase for nursing homes!
- In your post, include this flyer as a photo AND/OR ask your followers to take action via this link.
If you would like to post an alternative message that tags legislative leadership, or a message that pertains more directly to your service-line, there are numerous budget-related social media messages available here.
Tell Congress to Eliminate the 3-Day Hospital Stay Requirement
Federal law requires an inpatient hospital stay for three consecutive days before Medicare will cover a patient’s care in a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF). However, this 3-day qualifying hospital stay requirement has become antiquated and onerous for patients and providers as the landscape of care has changed in the nearly 60 years since Medicare was enacted.
The 3-day qualifying hospital stay requirement was waived in 2020, during the pandemic, and beneficiaries who otherwise qualified for SNF care received it—regardless of spending any amount of time in the hospital.
With the public health emergency set to end on May 11, now is the time to take legislative action to permanently fix this unnecessary requirement.
Click here to write to your member of Congress today!
REGISTER NOW: LeadingAge National Leadership Summit & Lobby Day!
LeadingAge National’s spring conference and lobby day is scheduled for April 17-19 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. During the 2023 LeadingAge Leadership Summit, attendees will have the opportunity to gain forward-looking solutions to solve the problems of today and the future, explore ideas to help bolster and empower our workforce, and influence the nation’s decision-makers via a coordinated lobbying effort on Capitol Hill.
This year, the Leadership Summit is structured in a way that attendees that would like to join lobby efforts will not miss any education session opportunities. All education sessions will conclude by 12 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19th, at which point an afternoon of lobby day meetings will begin for those that would like to participate.
Sarah Daly of LeadingAge New York will be attending the summit and lobby day, and will be there to join meetings with any New York membership that chooses to attend. All meetings will be organized and set up by LeadingAge National, so, all you need to do is register and book your flight! We hope to see you there!
Click here to register for the 2023 Leadership Summit and Lobby Day, today!
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 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