On Wednesday, the legislature received an update from the Washington State Economic & Revenue Forecast Council. As expected, this forecast was positive with revenue up nearly $1.5 billion for the current budget cycle ending June 30, 2023. In addition to the increased revenue for the current budget cycle, revenue is up by about $1.3 billion for the next budget cycle ending June 30, 2025. Budget writers will now finalize their budget proposals, and we expect to see both the House and Senate budgets released on Monday afternoon, with public hearings scheduled late afternoon and into the evening. Both budgets are then scheduled for executive action in committee on Wednesday when amendments to the underlying budgets are entertained before sending the budgets to the floor of their respective chambers. We are hopeful we will see some investments made in long term care services and supports. You can read the entire revenue forecast briefing here.
Key issues we are hoping to see addressed in both House and Senate budgets are:
an increase in both the direct care and indirect care medians to increase low wage worker wages and a reduced occupancy threshold to set the indirect care rate component for skilled nursing facilities,
funding at 77% of the Medicaid methodology for assisted living,
funding for adult day programs,
a required study of nurse staffing agency fees and other business practices, and
continuation of the COVID- 19 add-ons
Bills to monitor impacting LTC
Support
HB 1124- Concerning nurse delegation of glucose monitoring, glucose testing, and insulin injections. This bill passed out of the Senate Committee on Health & Long Term Care on February 16th.
HB 1877- Addressing expired certifications for certain health professions. This bill passed out of the House last weekend and will now be scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee.
HB 2025- Amending types of nonprofit organizations qualified to engage in certain bingo gambling activities and changes to the number of occurrences for unlicensed bingo activities. This bill did not make it out of the House by Monday’s cutoff and is now considered dead.
Oppose/ Concerns
HB 1868- Improving worker safety and patient care in health care facilities by addressing staffing needs, overtime, meal and rest breaks, and enforcement. This bill passed out of the House over the weekend and is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce & Tribal Affairs on February 21st.
