HFAM Update
Friends:
Today, I am thankful. I appreciate each of you and your teams of healthcare heroes. My wish for you, your families, and your organizations in 2021 and the years ahead is good health, safety and security, and success and prosperity.
The “what” and the “why” of 2020 are simultaneously remarkably ordinary and historically epic. Ordinary in that Maryland skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers and assisted living campuses have always been dedicated to providing quality care to Marylanders in need and to saving lives. This year has been historically epic because the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically complicated both the complexity and the life and death work that your healthcare heroes perform every day.
Refection
As we end this year it remains true that every life lost to COVID-19 is to be mourned and remembered; every life saved is to be celebrated. And, in Maryland nursing homes and assisted living centers, many more Marylanders lived than died.
Throughout my career in government, I have worked with military veterans, I briefly and proudly wore the uniform myself, and I have met with veterans in your centers. All of these veterans have three common attributes: humility, a quiet confidence, and the wish that they could have done more. When I speak to many of you and your healthcare heroes, I see these same attributes. Let us not forget that COVID-19 has made us stronger, better, battle-tested, and more determined than ever to navigate the best way forward.
Rates
- In March 2020 before the historic early adjournment of the Maryland General Assembly, we met with the House Speaker, the Senate President, and key legislators to restore and secure our four percent FY21 rate increase. You might remember that Governor Hogan included a two percent increase in his proposed budget, and we vowed to work with him and the General Assembly to restore it.
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Amid significant mid-year budget cuts, we lobbied Governor Hogan, members of the Board of Public Works, and leadership of the General Assembly to implement and keep intact our FY21 four percent rate increase. In March, June, and most recently in December, we advocated for the rates. On July 1, 2020 our enacted four percent rate increase was implemented.
- On January 1, 2021, in a real and tangible profile in courage, Governor Hogan and his administration will implement what we have been asking for— an increase in the rate. In this case the rate will be brilliantly increased by advancing the FY22 four percent rate increase, as we had suggested earlier.
- It is urgent and will take all of us working together going forward to ensure proper funding for quality care for Marylanders in need.
Personal Reflections and Re-Tooling
There is no doubt that many learnings will come from the lifesaving work of you and your healthcare heroes, and from our work together in 2020. There is also no doubt that from both the triumphs and failures of our sector, the federal government, and the state government that we will build together a new path that ensures continued access to quality care.
There were many times this year when I felt personally like a failure. Yet, at this turning of the year I am uplifted by our successes. Chief of these, your success rooted in the fact that Maryland skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers and assisted living campuses successfully saved tens of thousands more lives than they lost.
Personally, I am most proud of the little things such as finding (with the help of my wife Rebecca) gowns for an assisted living campus when there were truly none to spare; speaking with the mother of a resident and comforting her before and after the loss of her adult child; getting people care at home; attending virtually and supporting funerals; leading the way for our sector in Maryland; and most importantly, fighting for the people of our sector with persistence, leaving it all on the field— the good, the bad, and the ugly— and working mostly from home, as my sons (12 and 14) looked on.
Finally, while our life-saving work of 2020 will be the most consequential work of our careers, in 2021 we mark the beginning of the most dramatic re-tooling of our sector in history. There will be reimbursement challenges and reform, as well as care delivery reform. As I’ve shared before, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the challenges of workforce, career development, healthcare disparities, social determinants of health, and inclusion, diversity, and equity that pre-dated the pandemic—all will be on our agenda going forward.
Make no mistake, the work forward will be measured in years and not months. There will often be two steps forward, and one step back. As a result, and due to the pre-existing circumstances related to the financing of our sector, some centers will likely not successfully navigate the future landscape.
No matter what, we will be stronger together. We have already come a long way, despite the challenges we have faced, and we are stronger for it.
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Click HERE for one of our early interviews from April 3 (our first tv interview was in February).
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Click HERE for one of our most recent media pieces from the vaccination at Genesis Franklin Woods attended by Governor Hogan.
Be well,