Governor Baker yesterday released his FY 2021 budget recommendation and proposes an alarming $30 million cut in nursing home funding (line item 4000-0641). This proposed cut is disappointing and fails to reflect the nursing facility financial and workforce crisis that is currently threatening the viability of the nursing facility sector. Mass Senior Care Association is urging the Legislature to reject Governor Baker’s recommendation.
The Governor’s recommendation comes at a time when the sector is already facing a $360 million funding shortfall. A December 2019 report from the Commonwealth’s Center for Health Information and Analysis documents that the sector is in financial distress with a negative margin of -3.9% with over 70% of nursing facilities operating at a loss. Further highlighting the dire financial conditions, the consulting firm CliftonLarsonAllen’s stress test on the sector indicates that 95 nursing facilities – 25% of the sector - are at risk of closure. This would put 7,000 nursing home residents at risk of having to move outside of their communities to access care and 7,500 staff would lose their jobs.
“We remain committed to working with the Legislature and Governor Baker to immediately fix and modernize this broken funding system in order to protect resident care and invest in a living wage for our dedicated and deserving staff,” said Tara Gregorio, President of Massachusetts Senior Care Association. “It is undeniable that a nursing facility’s ability to make critically needed investments in resident care and direct care staff is entirely dependent upon adequate government funding, which has not kept pace with current resident care costs.”