The Joint Committee on Elder Affairs and Joint Committee on Health Care Financing earlier this week held separate public hearings on a combined 51 bills related to senior care, including The Nursing Home Stabilization bill, The Nursing Home Quality Jobs bill and The Senior Care Options Quality and Transparency bill.
Tara Gregorio, President of Mass Senior Care, testified to the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing in strong support of The Nursing Home Stabilization bill and The Nursing Home Quality Jobs legislation. Enactment of these bills would address the financial chaos in the nursing facility sector by modernizing a 35-year-old reimbursement system, while also establishing a well-deserved living wage for nursing facility staff and providing meaningful opportunity for career advancement.
Gregorio emphasized that Massachusetts nursing facilities are uniquely dependent on adequate Medicaid funding to invest in quality resident care and our workforce, since MassHealth pays for the care of 70% of our residents and over 80% of a nursing facility’s budget is allocated to staff wages and benefits. Gregorio further noted that the nursing facility sector has an urgent need to hire over 6,000 clinicians to address the historic workforce crisis.
To ensure access to quality resident care and improve staffing levels, the Stabilization bill would address inequities in the current MassHealth nursing facility rate system and promote a stable workforce necessary to meet the 24-hour care needs of our residents by requiring EOHHS to set Medicaid rates: (1) using the most current resident care and labor costs and requiring a yearly inflationary increase for staff compensation based on a valid wage growth measure; (2) funding the actual cost of employing nursing staff, (3) providing a disproportionate share payment to facilities that care for high number of Medicaid residents; and (4) funding necessary investments in technology and building improvements to enhance resident well-being and dignity. In addition, the Nursing Facility Quality Jobs legislation would provide critical solutions to the workforce crisis through three core interlocking initiatives: (1) funding competitive, living wages for direct care staff, (2) establishing a true opportunity for career growth for CNAs and licensed practical nurses (tuition payments and PTO), and (3) supporting employee satisfaction and retention via a leadership and supervisory training program for our nurse supervisors.
At a separate hearing before the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs, Gregorio urged the committee to endorse a Senior Care Organization Quality and Transparency bill that would require SCOs to reimburse nursing facilities based on the Medicaid Nursing Home Fee for Service Payment Rates. Gregorio also noted an increased number of complaints regarding managed care companies including SCOs failing to pay for services in a timely manner and applying overly aggressive prior authorization (PA) policies, which are leading to consumer delays in accessing post-acute care including hospitals patients who are eligible for discharge.